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the ark among them would be sufficient to save them from their enemies, and not from any respect or love to that God to whom the ark belonged, nor yet from any value for the great privilege of having his presence among them, of which the ark, you know, was the sign. It is also very likely, that God allowed them to lose so great a treasure, because the wickedness of Israel had become so great that he would not permit his presence to dwell among them any longer; and because, by depriving them of a blessing for which they had shown so little real value, he would teach them how miserable a thing it was to be without God in the world. Therefore, he forsook the tabarnacle in Shiloh, even the tent that he had pitched among men. He delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemies' hand." For the ark or presence of God among them had been at once their defence and their glory, the protection and the beauty of their land.

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Again, it is not unlikely, that God allowed their enemies to take the ark, that he might show his power among the heathen, and teach the haughty Philistines that he was the Lord of the whole earth of the Heathen equally as of the Jew, of the wicked as well as of the righteous, of the conquerors as well as of the conquered; and that their own false gods, of whom they thought so much, were in his sight less than nothing and vanity,

E. Where did the Philistines take the ark, mamma? and did they find that it did them any good?

M. When they took the ark of God, Edward, they were foolish and wicked enough to carry it into the house of Dagon their god, and to set it by Dagon.

How little could they have known of the King of Kings, when they supposed he would be so insulted! They knew not that he was a great God, and terrible in his anger ; they knew not what he was, whom they thus provoked to bring down his punishments among them.

Poor ignorant men, when they arose in the morning and went into their temple, they found that Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord : and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.

No doubt they were afraid when they saw this; but greater fear still must have come upon them, when they felt the anger of God in their own persons. For“ the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, and as a giant refreshed with wine ; he smote his enemies with a sore disease, and put them to a perpetual shame.” He laid his hand heavily upon them, and afflicted them with a very great destruction.

Now the temple of Daguu sooms to have been at Ashdod, a place lying on the shores of the Mediterranean, between Gaza and Joppa. And the men of Ashdod were afraid, and were anxious to get rid of the ark; "and they said, the ark of the God of Israel shall not abide any more with us; for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our God.” And they sent it unto another of their cities called Gath. But what good did a change of place do them? As soon as they had carried it into Gath, “the hand of the Lord was against that city also with a very great destruction.” Then the men of Gath sent away the ark into the last of their cities called Ekron, which lay close to that

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cart, and to take two milch cows, which had never drawn in yoke before, and tie them to the cart, shutting up their calves at home, and to lay the ark upon it, and to send it away: now this they did, that they might see, whether it was the hand of God that had brought all these troubles upon them; for they knew that these animals, which were now yoked for the first time, would not draw together, much less go the right way of themselves to Judea, but would naturally turn back to their calves, unless they were led by the invisible, but direct hand of Providence. And the men did so; and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart, and shut up the calves at home; when, greatly to their surprise, the kine took the straight way to Bethshemesh, a city of Judah, and went along the high way, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left: and the lords of the Philistines went after them to the borders of Bethshemesh. And the men of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat in the valley, when they saw the ark approaching; and they were, as you may imagine, greatly rejoiced to see it; and, in their joy, they clave the wood of the cart, and offered up the cattle that drew it, as a sacrifice unto the Lord. Then the men of Kirjath-jearim came and fetched up the ark of the Lord, and brought it into the house of their priest Abinadab, and set apart Eleazar his son, as a holy person to keep the ark of the Lord.

And, at the end of twenty years, all the house of Israel mourned after the Lord, because he had been provoked by their idolatry to leave them, and to give them up all that time to hard bondage under the Philistines. Then Samuel prayed for them unto

God, and offered sacrifices for them; and the people of Israel put away all their idols, and turned unto the Lord with all their hearts, and fasted, and confessed their sins unto him. And God heard their cry, and delivered them from the Philistines, who came up to fight against them at the very time that they were praying sorrowfully before the Lord. For the Lord thundered with a great thunder upon the Philistines, who were afraid and fled, and were smitten before Israel. So the Philistines were subdued, and came no more into the coasts of Israel. And the Israelites got back from them all the towns which they had taken.

NINTH SUNDAY EVENING.

ISRAEL ASKS A KING.

M. The prophet Samuel was now, Edward, growing an old man: he had long governed the people of God with the greatest faithfulness, both towards God and them; but he was now obliged to let his sons assist him in his work, appointing them to be judges under him, because of his age and infirmities.

E. Were they good men, mamma, like their father?

M. No; unhappily they did not follow his holy and upright example, but were covetous, and took bribes from the people, and so too often acted unjustly for the sake of money.

It so happened, that about this time a neighbouring king, the king of the Amorites, came against the Israelites, and they were in great fear because of him.

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