he had slain his brethren, who were better than himself;" God was to smite with a great plague his people, and children, and wives, and goods; and he was to have " great sickness" till his very

bowels fell out!

MAMA. And was all this fulfilled ? We need hardly ask.

MARY. Oh! yes.

"The Philistines and Ara

bians came and took away all his substance, and his wives also, and his sons; so that he had never a son left save his youngest Jehoahaz;" and it says he died of" sore diseases." "And his people made no burning for him, and did not bury him in the sepulchres of the kings."

MAMA. All terrible things, Mary; and the last a decided proof how little his subjects loved or respected him, or rather that they looked upon him as "smitten of God and afflicted." Now, we should not have known all these edifying particulars, if we had not referred to Chronicles. It is not for nothing you see that those often-repeated words are used (which so many pass over idly,) "The rest of the acts of Jehoram are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?" I dare say you never thought of this before.

MARY. No, Mama. I believe I never should, if you had not told me.

MAMA. You see, my dear, the use of our thus conversing together. Let the fate of Hazael warn us to dread presumption in our own strength, and to pray, "Lead us not into temptation." All the wickedness which so shocked him you will find he lived to commit; and no sooner was the idea of a crown put into his head than murder entered along with it.

From Jehoram's miserable end let us learn the danger of sinful connexions, and the infallible ruin here or hereafter of all who forsake God. The leprosy of Gehazi, and the horrible "diseases" of Jehoram, came both from Him who hath said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay;" and, oh! Mary, shall we not then fear One who can not only "kill the body" in so awful and loathsome a manner, but "cast both body and soul together into hell?"

174

MORNING TWENTIETH.

LESSON.-2 Kings, Chapter ix, x.

MAMA. These chapters, my dear Mary, (which, as containing the whole history of an individual I thought it a pity to separate,) bring us back into the dreary, though perhaps salutary, region from which many edifying stories have agreeably detained us, of God's fulfilment of threatened judgment on wicked kings, by instruments little better than themselves. For what purpose did God, through his servant Elisha, make choice of " Jehu, the son of Nimshi?"

MARY. To execute his vengeance upon the house of Ahab, Mama; and upon wicked Jezebel, his wife.

MAMA. And if unrelenting zeal and severity fitted him for the task, God could not have chosen a more suitable executioner. But, before accompanying him in his bloody work of extermination, let us examine the circumstances of his call to the office. What did Elisha do in the beginning of the chapter?

MARY. He called one of the children of the

prophets, and said unto him, "Gird up thy

koins."

MAMA. Mary, do you know the exact meaning of this expression?

MARY. No, Mama.

MAMA. It is time you should; because it occurs so often, both literally and figuratively, in Scripture. In the former sense, it relates to the long cumbersome garments worn by the Jews, like other eastern nations-(you have seen a Turk, my dear, at least in a picture)—which are obliged to be tucked up, and confined with a girdle before a journey, or any kind of exercise. The knowledge of this will help you to understand the spiritual sense in which it is frequently used. St. Peter says, "Gird up the loins of mind, and be sober." Christ bids us

your ❝ have our

loins girt about, and our lamps burning, like men who wait for the coming of their Lord." In both cases it means, "Get rid as carefully of the impediments in the work of your salvation, as messengers before starting dispose of the garments which would hinder them on their journey." What was this messenger to take with him, my dear?

MARY. A box of oil, Mama.
MAMA. For what purpose?

MARY. To pour on the head of Jehu, and tell him God had "anointed" him.

MAMA. This will explain to you the meaning. of that title, so often applied in the Bible to sovereigns, and, by a figure of speech, to Christ, "The King of kings." But by whom was this mark of respect and honour literally bestowed upon Him?

MAMA. What, Mary! Not your own namesake, who "took an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he sat at meat!"

MARY. Oh! yes, Mama; it was wrong in me to forget it.

MAMA. So it was, my dear; for what does Christ say ? "Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her." You see it was not meant to be forgotten. The oil used for anointing kings, was, like her ointment," very precious," being compounded of the finest spices and perfumes, and held sacred for its royal purpose; and so ancient and venerable is the custom, as to be kept up in coronations to this day. remember any other

Do you

striking instance of God's unexpectedly anointing

a private person to be king?