on the return from Babylon, cheered and encouraged those engaged in the building of the second temple.

The return from Babylon took place first under the guidance of Zerubbabel, of the house of David, and later under that of Ezra. The latter set himself the task of consolidating the Jews into a compact religious community. In this he fully succeeded, for a most remarkable change had come over the national character of the Jews during the captivity, which facilitated his proceeding. The propensity for the worship of strange gods which was so rife among them while they were an independent people, had given place to a passionate devotion to their own law, and as too close an intercourse with the surrounding Gentiles might again lead them astray, they even consented, on the demand of Ezra, to part with such of their wives as were of heathen families. Ever since that time they have remained a substantially unmixed race (though it is known that the law of Moses does not forbid intermarriages except with the seven nations of Canaan), and they have also remained inimical to even the slightest approach to idol worship, a circumstance which has a

Ezra and Nehemiah.

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good deal to do with their rejection of Christianity, seeing how large a part of Christendom adheres to forms which certainly gives to their religion a great resemblance to idol worship, if not more than a resemblance. Ezra, who is held in high esteem among the Jews and compared to Moses (for as Moses formed them into a nation, so Ezra, when they had ceased to be an independent kingdom, formed them into an organised religious community)-Ezra undertook yet a nobler work than the one I have mentioned, namely, the compilation of the sacred writings of the Jews, as far as they could be found. The Book of Jasher, the Book of the Prophet Iddo, the Book of the Prophet Gad, the Book of the Wars of the LORD, and sundry writings of Solomon, to which allusion is made in the sacred writings, were lost. But all those books which we now find in the Old Testament (with the exception of Malachi, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther, which were added later, most likely by Simon the Just, high-priest about 300 B.C.) were put together by Ezra and classified into the law, the prophets, and the ketubim, or miscellaneous writings.

To the time of Ezra and his successor, Nehemiah, we trace that institution which contributed

Ephraim and Judah was brought to an issue by Jeroboam; and Jeroboam was made king over the ten tribes which withdrew their allegiance from Rehoboam, leaving him but Judah and Benjamin to reign over. From this time. forward the kingdom of Israel signifies the kingdom of the ten tribes, while the other two tribes form the kingdom of Judah. The kingdom of Israel, in this state of separation, existed 254 years, after which time its people were carried away as captives by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria. During these 254 years there reigned in Israel nineteen kings, belonging to eight different houses, which, one after the other, usurped the dominion, and gave a terrible illustration of how God punishes the wicked to the third and fourth generation for it is a noteworthy fact that none of these usurpers could secure the throne to his descendants beyond the fourth generation.

The kingdom of Judah existed 135 years longer than that of Israel. During those 379 years there reigned in Judah nineteen kings, the same number which reigned in Israel during 254 years, but all these kings were the lineal descendants of the God-appointed house of David. Most wonderfully has the providence of God

The House of David.

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manifested itself in watching over the preservation of the house of David, in order that the promise given to David, "There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit upon the throne of Israel," may be fulfilled. Even when Athaliah usurped the throne of David and had murdered, as she thought, all the offspring of the royal house, one child, Jehoash, carefully hidden within the temple, escaped safely, and he, in due time, ascended the throne of his fathers.

CHAPTER II.

Kings of Judah and Israel.-Athalia.—Jehoash.—Decline of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah.-Golden Age of Prophecy.Elijah.-Elisha.-Grand Lyric Bards.—Isaiah.—Jeremiah.—Destruction of the First Temple.-Jews in Captivity.-Prophets Ezekiel and Daniel.—Return from Exile.-Ezra forms the Jews into a Religious Community.-Men of the Great Synagogue.— Enmity between Jews and Samaritans.-Sanballat builds a rival Temple on Mount Gerizim.-Mount Gerizim now covered by a Christian church.-Copies of the Samaritan Pentateuch brought to Europe.

I NEED not dwell at great length on the history of the two kingdoms. In Israel a more or less mitigated idolatry prevailed, and this forsaking of Jehovah led to the inevitable result the final dissolution of the kingdom. As for the kingdom of Judah, it had several very pious kings-as Hezekiah and Josiah-and was, on the whole, rather benefited than otherwise by the separation from the kingdom of Israel. In the first place, the idolatry of Tyre, which was exceedingly fascinating to the Hebrew race, scarcely reached the kingdom of Judah at all,