beheld Elijah taken up into heaven; meaning perhaps that the aged prophet was as much to Israel as ever Elijah could have been, and that their strength and safety were going with him.

Then Elisha put the King's faith to a test. He bade him open the window to the eastward, the direction whence his Syrian foes came, and take his bow and arrows. The King obeyed; the dying prophet laid his hand on the arrow, and bade him shoot. "The arrow of the Lord's deliverance," said the prophet. The Lord could deliver those who had faith in Him, without chariots, or horses, or prophets. Then he bade the King go on shooting his arrows upon the ground, with the bow thus blessed. But Joash's faith was not sufficient. He could not simply trust the prophet's word; he seems to have meant to humour the old man, but to have thought him weak and doting, for he shot only three times. Then he found that God had made the blessing and the victory to depend on his faith and obedience. He was merely to have three victories. Had he persevered in shooting he would have subdued the Syrians. So it is that the turning-points of our lives come to us in what seem little trifles that we do not heed. Let us remember that though we never know which arrows may be the pledges of our victories, yet our conduct on each little point is that which forms our character for conquest or defeat.

And so died the great prophet Elisha, the likeness both of the Saviour and of His Church; and he was to foreshow his Lord in another manner. He was buried as usual in a rock-hewn tomb, and swathed in linen. The next year, as a funeral procession was going forth, one of the robber bands of the Moabites and Ammonites were seen hovering about. The mourners hastily thrust the corpse into the tomb of Elisha, but no sooner had the body touched the bones of the prophet, than the dead revived and stood on his feet. It is of this that the Preacher says (Ecclus. xlviii. 13): “No word could overcome him, and after his death his body prophesied', -"prophesied " here meaning "worked wonders."

To us, this wonder speaks of the touch of the Body of Christ Jesus, quickening or making alive by His death. It speaks also

of the manner in which many a dead, cold heart is brought to life by contact with the holy thoughts and writings of good men, who, being dead, yet speak.

LESSON XLVII.

THE WAR OF AMAZIAH WITH EDOM.

B.C. 839.-2 CHRON. XXV. 1—13.

Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.

And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart.

Now it came to pass, when the kingdom was established to him, that he slew his servants that had killed the king his father.

But he slew not their children, but did as it is written in the law in the book of Moses, where the LORD commanded, saying, The fathers shall not die for the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers, but every man shall die for his own sin.

Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together, and made them captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, according to the houses of their fathers, throughout all Judah and Benjamin: and he numbered them from twenty years old and above, and found them three hundred thousand choice men, able to go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield.

He hired also an hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of Israel for an hundred talents of silver.

But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the LORD is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim.

But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle: God shall make thee fall before the enemy: for God hath power to help, and to cast down.

And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The LORD is able to give thee much more than this.

Then Amaziah separated them, to wit, the army that was come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again: wherefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in great anger.

And Amaziah strengthened himself, and led forth his people, and went to the valley of Salt, and smote of the children of Seir ten thousand, and took Selah by war, and called the name of it Joktheel + unto this day.

And other ten thousand left alive did the children of Judah carry away captive, and brought them unto the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they all were broken in pieces.

But the soldiers of the army which Amaziah sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, fell upon the cities of Judah, from Samaria even unto Beth-horon, and smote three thousand of them, and took much spoil.

*The Rock.

The Lord hath conquered.

COMMENT.---Amaziah, who succeeded his father Joash, was but too like him in a want of firmness of character that prevented both from persevering to the end. But his early life was brave and prosperous. He justly punished the murderers of his father, but took heed to the command in the Book of Deuteronomy (iv. 16) that the children should not be put to death for the crime of their parents. He had, however, not a perfect heart; there was already the beginning of evil within him, and unchecked evil, however small at first, proves ruin at last.

Why he went to war with the Edomites does not appear. They had been subject to Judah from David's time to Jehoram's, but then had revolted all through the idolatrous time. Very likely they had taken advantage of the successful inroad of the Syrians to make attacks upon Judah; or it might have been that Amaziah, finding himself at the head of so large a body of warriors, hoped to reduce them again to be a tributary nation. Israel was becoming prosperous while Joash was gaining his three victories, and Amaziah increased his army by hiring 100,000 Israelite soldiers for 100 talents of silver. But the armies of the Lord were not to be stained by the presence of the ungodly, and a prophet came to the King to warn him against trusting to them. First he bade Amaziah dismiss the Israelites, because the God whom they had forsaken would not be with them; and then added, with irony like that of Micaiah to Ahab, that if he would take them, then he had need to be very strong indeed. Then God would fight against him, then he would fall; but without the thousands of Israel, God was sufficient to give the victory. Amaziah listened, but asked what he should do for his 100 talents. "Let them go," the prophet answered; "God can give thee much more." And, happily for the army of Judah, Amaziah had faith to heed the prophet and separate his army from the Israelites-hired warriors, savage, and thirsting only for plunder, who no doubt would have soon fallen on their allies, if not betrayed them to the foe.

Any loss is better than disobedience or evil companionship, and there may be many times in our lives when it would be well if we thought of Amaziah's 100 talents. His march was into the valley of Salt, south of the Dead Sea, towards Mount Seir, the inheritance of Edom. Here lay their chief city, Selah, which means "a rock," and

which long after was better known as Petra, the Latin translation of its name. It is on a hill in a narrow mountain-valley of sharp, steep rocks, where the most wonderful workmanship has been exercised in carving not only tombs, but temples, houses, and theatres in the living rock. The date of most of these remains is much later, but some of the work must have been begun, and the strength of the place by nature is wonderful. Amaziah was one of the very few conquerors who ever made his way thither, up ravine winding out of ravine, and he acknowledged the Divine help by newly naming it "The Lord hath conquered."

But he did not make a good man's use of his victory. The 10,000 slain in battle died rightly, but he threw 10,000 more from the top of their own rocks, and no doubt it was as a judgment for this barbarity that his own country was not defended from the savage cruelty of the Israelites he had dismissed, who, though they had had their pay, were so furious at missing the spoil of Edom that on their return they ravaged Judah from Beth-horon to Samaria.

LESSON XLVIII.

AMAZIAH'S WAR WITH JOASH.

B.C. 826.-2 CHRON. XXV. 14-28.

Now it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them.

Wherefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against Amaziah, and he sent unto him a prophet, which said unto him, Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand?

And it came to pass, as he talked with him, that the king said unto him, Art thou made of the king's counsel? forbear; why shouldest thou be smitten? Then the prophet forbare, and said, I know that God hath determined to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened unto my counsel.

Then Amaziah king of Judah took advice, and sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us see one another in the face.*

* Meet in battle.

And Joash king of Israel, sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle.

Thou sayest, Lo, thou hast smitten the Edomites; and thine heart lifteth thee up to boast: abide now at home; why shouldest thou meddle to thine hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?

But Amaziah would not hear; for it came of God, that he might deliver them into the hand of their enemies, because they sought after the gods of Edom.

So Joash the king of Israel went up; and they saw one another in the face, both he and Amaziah king of Judah, at Beth-shemesh, which belongeth to Judah.

And Judah was put to the worse before Israel, and they fled every man to his tent.

And Joash the king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits.

And he took all the gold and the silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of God with Obed-edom, and the treasures of the king's house, the hostages * also, and returned to Samaria.

And Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived after the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel fifteen years.

Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, behold, are they not written in the bock of the kings of Judah and Israel?

Now after the time that Amaziah did turn away from following the LORD they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem; and he fled to Lachish but they sent to Lachish after him, and slew him there.

And they brought him upon horses, and buried him with his fathers in the city of Judah.

COMMENT.-A change greatly for the worse came over Amaziah during his inroad into Edom. Perhaps it was that his victory filled him with pride," and his soul which is lifted up is not right in him" (Hab. ii. 4). Or he may in the muster of his army have fallen in with some such chiefs of Judah as those who had led astray his father before him, and who probably made him ashamed of having listened to the prophet's counsel and sent home the Israelite allies, especially as that dismissal had ended in the devastation of Judah. At any rate, after his cruel slaughter of the Edomites, he took their idols out of Petra and adopted them for himself. It is not unlikely that he thought to appease them after this murder of their votaries, and it is also possible that they were idolatrous emblems like the

* Men who were to be kept in his hands as pledges for the peaceable behaviour of their countrymen.