it would seem, he wrestled with the angel (Hos. xii. 4, 5). It was here that the people resorted in the time of the Judges to inquire of the Lord.1 It was here that the ark rested for a time under the charge of Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron. No spot could be found more closely associated with the old worship, and for this reason Jeroboam chose it as a centre for the new worship. It would seem to trace back a religious descent to the Patriarch whose children they delighted to be called. The very name Bethel2 ("the house of God") would create a predisposition in its favour, and serve to recall the fervid words, "This is none other but the House of God, and this is the Gate of Heaven" (Gen. xxviii. 17). "So Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the 15th day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Fudah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he made; and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made."

See how careful he was to observe the very feast that was observed in Judah, so as to give a colour to

1

1 Judges xx. 18, 26; xxi. 2. It is to be regretted that our translators did not retain in these instances the proper name, Bethel, instead of substituting for it its signification of "The house of the Lord." See Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," S.V. Bethel.

2 The writer of the article on " Bethel " in Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," remarks upon the "intense significance" of this title, and points out how it has been turned to account—“ the very syllables of Jacob's exclamation, forming the title of the chief sanctuary of the Mahometan world-the Beit-allah of Mecca -while they are no less the favourite designation of the meanest conventicles of the humblest sects of Protestant Christendom."

the plea that they did but worship the same Jehovah, though in another way. Wherever his scheme admitted of it, he adhered closely to the old religion. The Mosaic offering for consecration to the priesthood was observed to the letter (Ex. xxix. 35, 36; 2 Chron. xiii. 9). The Sabbaths, the new moons, and the old Calendar of fast and festival were retained (Hos. ii. II; ix. 5). Indeed the whole feast at Bethel and the part that Jeroboam assumed in it was apparently a servile imitation of Solomon's consecration of the Temple (1 Kings viii. 2, 5, 22). It was not his object to introduce a false worship, but a separate worship. The changes, he would urge, were merely to accommodate the old religion to the altered circumstances of the kingdom, without affecting its identity. How plausibly would he represent that the essentials were the same it was only a variation of externals—mere forms and ceremonies!

Now we come to the all-important inquiry, How did God regard that worship in another way, a worship that Jeroboam "devised of his own heart" (1 Kings xii. 33)? We are not left in doubt.

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'Behold, there came a man of God1 out of Judah

1 Ancient Jewish tradition identifies him with Iddo: cf. 2 Chron. ix. 29, "the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat."

There was a fitness in the prophet who was to denounce the schismatic worship of Israel coming out of Judah, for where else was a faithful prophet to be found? It is expressly stated in 2 Chron. xi. 16, that "such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel" had gone to Jerusalem. That the "old prophet" should still be living at Bethel after this general exodus of the faithful, shows that he was at least of doubtful fidelity; added to

by the word of the Lord unto Bethel; and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar! thus saith the Lord: Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee" (1 Kings xiii.). So God's displeasure rested upon that unauthorized worship. More than this, the altar cannot hold the sacrifice. "The altar was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar." This is a sign we may not disregard. Such a sacrifice finds no favour with God.1

Still the sin went on. why the people should Jerusalem to worship.

There were political reasons not be suffered to go up to The ten tribes might be

which the solemn prohibition to the prophet of Judah, “ Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there," interpreted by his transgression and punishment, plainly included the old prophet in what amounted to a sentence of excommunication. Feeling himself compromised, in common with all Bethel, by this announcement of the Word of the Lord, the old prophet doubtless sought to recover his position by associating with the man of God out of Judah. Then follow the unscrupulous means, the false assertion, "an angel spake unto me”—a claim to a personal revelation which is so often made to override the plain Word of God; finally, when too late, the ineffectual lament over the partaker of his sin, "alas, my brother!"

1 of the effect of that irregular worship on another generation we have significant proof. It led, as might be expected, to defiance of all authority. It was at Bethel, at a later date, that the very children came forth to mock God's accredited prophet, and were destroyed by bears (2 Kings ii. 23, 24). Also the man who, in defiance of the curse of God, rebuilt Jericho, was Hiel, the Bethelite (1 Kings xvi. 34).

tempted to return to their allegiance to the house of David. So one by one the kings come and go, and there is still the same record, "He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin." It is true that each in turn did but maintain the form of worship that he found already existing. Still it was accounted sin that "he departed not" from it.

And there were not wanting indications of what was the will of God. The twelve cakes of the shewbread in the Temple at Jerusalem (Lev. xxiv. 5) and the high priest bearing on his ephod the names of the twelve tribes were standing protests against this division (Ex. xxviii. 9-13). On one memorable

occasion this protest was made even before the schismatic tribes themselves. In that scene on Mount Carmel, when Elijah met the prophets of Baal, it is significantly recorded that he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down, evidently an old altar of the days when Israel was undivided; for watch the prophet's actions: "Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Facob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name: and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord" (1 Kings xviii. 31, 32). That action could only be a protest against the religious division that prevailed.1 By it he proclaims

1 For many traces of the worship of Jehovah being still prevalent side by side with that of Baal, see Blunt's "Undesigned Coincidences," part ii. pp. 198, 199. This explains Elijah's challenge, "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him" (I Kings xviii. 21).

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that he is no prophet of a sect; he is the prophet of the Lord to all the twelve tribes of the chosen people.

Nor may we omit the effort made by King Hezekiah to restore the unity of the Church. "And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel. So they established

a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written. . . . Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord, and enter into His sanctuary, which He hath sanctified for ever: and serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you. . . . And all the congregation of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and all the congregation that came out of Israel, and the strangers that came out of the land of Israel, and that dwelt in Judah, rejoiced. So there was great joy in Jerusalem : for since the time of Solomon the son of David King of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem "1 (2 Chron. xxx. I, 5, 8, 25, 26).

At last those ten tribes were carried

away into

1 In like manner Israelites seem to have participated in the religious festivals that crowned the Reformations of Asa and Josiah (2 Chron. xv. 9; xxxv. 17, 18). All true Reformations have a tendency to reunion on the basis of primitive doctrine and practice. It was because it fell short in this respect that Jehu's attempted Reformation in the Northern Kingdom so soon failed (2 Kings x. 28-31).