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mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Ahijah the prophet. That word was as follows: "All Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him." The mourning of all the people could not be on account of the good that was found in him towards the Lord,-at least, not for its own sake, seeing the great body of them had become so degenerate, as to follow implicitly the idolatrous practices of their king. Such persons must have cared little for the religious principles of the young prince; but they would have a very acute feeling of what affected their own happiness. The nation was in misery. "There was war between the house of Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days," verse 30. Such incessant war.. fare must have greatly enfeebled both; but it must have been worse with the ten tribes, who, as a nation, had abandoned the worship of the true God. Rehoboam did much evil in Judah in various ways; but the Lord had still a light in the house of David, and his worship was maintained in the temple, while the ten tribes, in their national capacity,

were devoted to their idols. The Lord made their backslidings to reprove them, and their iniquities to correct them, that they might know it to be an evil and a bitter thing to forsake his service for that of an idol. They would gladly have been saved from their misery, even at the expense of parting with their idols; and for effecting this, Abijah was the only hope of the nation ; and he being removed, it was very natural that all Israel should mourn for him. It would have been better, if every individual had bethought himself, saying, "What have I done?" and returned to God, every one for himself, though they had left the king to his own way, and whatever became of him, they would have saved their own souls.

The judgments denounced against the house of Jeroboam, did not take place in his own life-time. He lived to be defeated by a king of Judah,—Abijah, the son of Rehoboam, and to witness the slaughter of halfa-million of his valiant men, though his army was double of that of Judah.-2 Chron. XV. This was a stroke that he never re

covered, for soon after, the Lord struck him, and he died. He did not die a violent death by the hand of man; and it is said of him, (1 Kings xiv. 20.) that he slept with his fathers, and Nadab, his son, reigned in his stead. Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour, when Solomon patronized him : he must have possessed the commanding influence of popular manners, to make the people follow him so implicitly; and there does not appear to have ever been any insurrectionary movement against him; but a rebellion was soon made against his son, who was slain; and then was fulfilled the word of God by Ahijah the prophet. Baasha, who supplanted him, "smote all the house of Jeroboam; he left not of Jeroboam any that breathed, until he had destroyed them." We have seen that his sons joined with him in suppressing the worship of God, and they all perish in their own sin and his, with the exception of Abijah, who was previously taken away from the evil to come.

SONNET,

WRITTEN IN POLLOK'S "COURSE OF TIME."

BY THOMAS ATKINSON.

IF e'er the spirits of departed worth,

From yon bright arch may bend a downward eye, Then with a sympathising glance to earthSurely thou lookest from thy place on high, On those who at this hour, as now do I

The Holy One of summer's Sabbath prime, Thro' thy pure thoughts hold converse with the sky,

And feel our own upwing to the sublime,

Forgetting, while we track the "Course of Time;" And gazing on the boundless space where spreads Eternity, whose ever nightless clime

Dims even the blue that stretches o'er our head! If aught can make thee happier in that sphere, 'Twill be that thus thou'rt lov'd and venerated here!

THE CHRISTIAN MARTYR.

BY HAMILTON BUCHANAN.

"On these melancholy occasions, there were many among the Gentiles who pitied, who admired, and who were converted. The generous enthusiasm was communicated from the sufferer to the spectators; and the blood of the Martyrs, according to a well-known observation, became the seed of the Church!"-Gibbon.

THE eyes of thousands glanc'd on him as 'mid the Cirque he stood

Unheeding of the shout which broke from that vast multitude:

The prison damps had paled his cheek; and on his lofty brow

Corroding care had deeply traced the furrows of his plough.

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