writings by and by, I merely notice them now, as they are connected with the several parts of the Jewish history. The book of Jonah does not come within this description ; but as he flourished at this period, it may be proper to mention it in this place; and, as it is wholly narrative, you will be entertained as well as edified, by a more particular account of its contents.

Jonah is supposed to have prophecied in the reign of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, of the restoration of the coasts of that country, which had been seized by Hazael, the Syrian, and were recovered by the second Jeroboam. I do not state a supposition, with respect to the prophecy, but to the precise time in which it was delivered, which is an unimportant circumstance.

But his principal mission was to a gentile nation. He was the instrument employed to suspend the threatened judgments against the great city of Nineveh. Nineveh was a very ancient city, dating its foundation so early as the time of Asher, the grandson of Noah. It was sixty miles in circuit, and contained not less than six hundred thousand persons. Abounding in wealth, it was immoral to excess, and Jonah was commanded to tell the inhabitants that unless they repented, in forty days their city would be destroyed.

It is not likely that the great Supreme would leave his servant in doubt about the source of a command from himself, in whatever way communicated. Jonah well knew that obedience was his duty; but he wanted fortitude to dare the rage of the proud Ninevites, and, without reflecting that he could not flee from the Lord of the Universe, he determined to neglect his mandate, and go to Tarshish. Where the Tarshish of the Scriptures was situated, the re

searches of the learned cannot now discover: we only know that Jonah was obliged to go thither by sea, and that he took shipping at Joppa. But soon a tremendous storm sent the terrified mariners to call upon their gods for deliverance. Lots, too, were cast to discover the offender, for whose sake they were in peril, that he might be sacrificed to the vengeance of the angry deities. The lot falling on the disobedient prophet, he was awakened from a sleep, and entreated to call also upon his God, and to declare to his companions the cause of their present danger. With the deepest contrition, he acknowledged that he had been sent to Nineveh, and had "fled from the face of the Lord." Assuring them of safety to themselves, he desired them to cast him into the sea; but their humanity prompted them first to try every other means of preservation.The tempest, however, still raging, the sailors confessed the sovereignty of Jonah's God, and committed him to the waves! Punishment alone, not death, being designed, Jonah was swallowed by a great fish, and, after remaining three days in this gloomy tomb, was cast alive on dry land!

Convinced now that He who could preserve him three days in the bosom of the great deep, could protect him in the execution of his mission, he went immediately to Nineveh, and proclaimed the dread decree: " Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"

It is very possible that the report of the late miracle disposed the inhabitants to listen to the prophet; perhaps his incarceration, within a great whale, declared by himself, was believed. He was received with surprising humility. The king himself laid aside the royal robes, and exhorted his people to follow his example-to clothe them

selves in sackcloth-to keep a rigid fast-to turn from their aggravated sins, and to pray earnestly. Accordingly the prayer of Faith ascended to the Throne of Grace, and Nineveh was spared for a time.

CHARLES. Was not Jonah rejoiced at the success of his preaching?

MRS. M. The prophets, my son, were but men, like others. They foresaw events the most unlikely, and they performed wondrous miracles; but they had the failings of humanity. In the faithful record of their errors, we have a triumphant answer to those who tell us, that the Messiah, "of whom they spake," was but a prophet like themselves;-in one, we see infirm creatures-in the other, a perfect character. Jonah was not only timid, but culpably jealous of his own honour. In the probable penitence of the Ninevites, and the consequent reversal of his denunciation, he feared that his prophetic name might be tarnished. Already forgetting the pardon of his own sin, he grieved that the same mercy had been accorded to an immense multitude of his fellow creatures. Uncertain, however, of the event, he went out of the city and sat down on an eminence to observe its fate. Repenting Nineveh still reared her proud towers-her princely palaces, and her stupendous walls, survived the destined day, and Jonah peevishly exclaimed, "Was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore, now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live."

Suddenly, in the course of one night, "a gourd," or

spreading vine, was made to spring up from the earth, and surround him with a grateful shelter; as suddenly a worm preyed upon its root, and in a night it perished!-Exposed now to a scorching wind and meridian sun, combined with the corroding effects of a wounded mind, the suffering prophet lamented the loss of his bower, and prayed again for death. "Then," said the Lord, "thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow, which came up in a night, and perished in a night: and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons, that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?"

ment.

By this beautiful illustration, the prophet's selfishness was reproved, and an affecting moral left for our improveHow apt are we to behold, unmoved, the calamities of others, whilst we murmur and repine at the smallest inconvenience to ourselves! We are all sinners, and therefore subjected to trials! Let us submit with patience to the loss of our dearest treasures, and sympathize with others in their sorrows: remembering, that however distinguished by names, or by nations, the whole human race are our brethren-heirs, alike, of divine mercy, and immortal bliss.

Having seen the awful end of apostacy in the ten tribes, let us return to the house of David, and, in the same summary manner, take a view of their progress to ruin; for they too apostatized, but not to the same unpardonable excess; nor was their doom irrevocable, like that of the sister state.

We left the kingdom of Judah in the hands of Jehoshaphat, who dying, was succeeded by Jehoram, his son. Jeho

ram was married to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab the King of Israel, and was probably seduced by this unfortunate connection, to imitate the vices of that wicked prince; his heart, however, must have been radically bad, for he inhumanly put all his brothers to death, besides others of the chief men in Jerusalem. All the pious regulations of his father were now abolished, and the people compelled to worship the images of the Gentiles. The Edomites, who had been conquered, and made a province of the empire by David, took advantage of the convulsions into which the misconduct of Jehoram threw the commonwealth, and revolting from him, made a king for themselves. Thus the prophecy of Isaac, delivered nearly nine hundred years before, was fulfilled-that Esau should be subjected to Jacob, but in time should liberate himself from the yoke.* About the same time, the Philistines and Arabians broke suddenly into the royal city, plundered the palace, carried away the wives of Jehoram, and all his sons, except Ahaziah, the youngest. After a miserable reign of eight years, Jehoram was afflicted with a very dreadful disease, and died unlamented by his people, who marked their disapprobation of his character, by refusing to inter him in the sepulchres of their kings. Ahaziah, or Jehohaz, as he is also called, next ascended the throne, and in his short reign of one year, and under the influence of his mother, pursued the steps of the late reign. On a visit to the king of Israel, he was seized in Samaria, by Jehu, and put to death, because he was, by his mother's side, descended from Ahab. This ambitious woman, inheriting the vices of her family, procured the death of all the

* Gen. 27. 40.