half descendants of heathen settlers in Judea. Were the Jews and they on good terms?

MARY. Oh! no, Mama.

MAMA. How do you know?

MARY. Oh! because the woman of Samaria wondered our Lord should even ask her for a drink of water; and once he was near killed because "his face was as if he was going to Samaria."

MAMA. Very well remembered. Indeed the Evangelists tell us expressly that the "Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans.”

MARY. I wonder why, Mama.

MAMA. Because of mutual jealousies about their rival temples; and the Samaritans only acknowledging the five books of Moses to be ScripBut, Mary, what had they learned even from these, more than the Jews, who had the prophets also to enlighten them?

ture.

MAMA. Do

you remember what the woman of Samaria said Christ would do when he came ?

MARY. NO.

MAMA. I will tell you. She and her people expected him to be a Teacher, while the proud worldly Jews only looked for an earthly Conqueror; and when Christ disappointed them, put him to death. Let this teach you the blessedness

of those who humbly make the most of small opportunities of instruction, over prejudiced and selfconfident persons who are too proud to learn!

We have had a melancholy task to-day, Mary, but a necessary one, in following the wickedness of man to its utmost height, in the kings of rebellious Israel. Let us not lose sight of its deplor¬ able consequence the total loss and dispersion of the Ten Tribes, who have not been heard of for more than two thousand years; while the relics of the "afflicted seed of David" are kept, by a miracle, unmixed among the nations of the earth, till the time (which cannot now be far distant) fixed in the counsels of God for their restoration.

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MORNING SIXTH.

LESSON.-1st Kings, Chapter xvi., Verse 29, to end of Chapter xvii.

MAMA. I fear, Mary, we are not yet done with wicked kings, as Ahab, whose reign we are beginning to-day, excelled all his predecessors in iniquity. But then his history is relieved with a number of interesting stories; and the bright character of the prophet Elijah cheers our hearts all the while, like a light shining in a dark place! Who was Ahab, my dear?

MARY. The son of Omri, King of Israel.

MAMA. And what was his character?

MARY. Oh, Mama, dreadful!" As if it had been a light thing to walk in the sins of Jeroboam," he took a heathen wife, called Jezebel, and worshipped her god, Baal!

MAMA. Dreadful indeed! Do you remember any similar marriages where precisely the same thing happened? But indeed I scarcely think you have read the part of Scripture where it is recorded. It occurs in Numbers: "The Israelites

joined themselves to the daughters of Moab, and served Baal-peor ;" and immediately (as in the case of the golden calf). bloodshed and pestilence were the consequence of their transgression. Phinehas and his faithful comrades slew the offenders, and four and twenty thousand people died of the plague! Oh! Mary, is it not wonderful that fools should, after such dreadful judgments, "make a mock at sin?" Do they suppose God is less angry with it now, because he no longer punishes it so signally on the spot? Let us be wiser, and remember the Israelites in the wilderness! Was Ahab content with Baal and the golden calves for gods?

MARY. No, Mama; he made a grove, and "provoked God above all the kings that had gone before him."

MAMA. What reason have we to think, from the very next verse, that unbelief and impiety are infectious? Who followed Ahab's bad example of both?

MARY. I am sure I don't know, Mama, unless "Hiel the Bethelite," who built up you mean Jericho. What was there sinful in that?

MAMA. Something, surely, Mary, else it would not have been marked by such signal judgments. What does it mean that " he laid the foundation

thereof in Abiram, his first-born, and set up the gates in his youngest son Segub ?”

MAMA. It means that he lost both his sons in consequence of daringly venturing to rebuild a city which God meant to destroy for ever. had prophesied that he would do so?

MARY. Joshua, the son of Nun.

Who

MAMA. And was he good authority? Do you know who he was?

MARY. Yes, Mama; he was a young man, on whom Moses leaned when he was old. I have seen a picture of it.

MAMA. Yes, Mary; but he was more. He was his worthy and valiant successor; and some consider him as a type of Christ, both because of his name, (which is the same as Jesus,) and be→ cause he brought Israel into the promised land, which Moses, the great head of the law, was not permitted to do. Do you recollect why poor Moses lost this great privilege?

MARY. For disobeying God, I believe.

MAMA. No, Mary, not exactly; but for performing God's command in a way of his own! Oh! Mary, beware of self-sufficiency and departure from the simplicity of the Gospel, when you see that the great lawgiver of Israel was not excused for taking one jot or tittle" from the re

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