or forbidden pleasure? If so, let us think we hear the prophet of Judah addressing ourselves, "Shouldest thou help the ungodly, or love them that hate the Lord?" or the Apostle Paul yet more explicitly declaring, "Be not deceived; evil communications corrupt good manners."

K

98

MORNING TWELFTH.

LESSON.--2 Kings, Chapter i. to the end.

MAMA. My dear Mary, we have in this chapter in very striking contrast, the opposite and remarkable effects of unbelief and faith; of the former, in hardening and utterly ruining both soul and body, as in the case of Ahaziah; and of the latter, in averting, by its humbling and salutary influence, not only the temporal, but, perhaps, eternal judgments of God, in the person of the third "Captain of Fifty," sent by the impious monarch to defy the Lord of Hosts by the seizure of his prophet. For the birth and education of Ahaziah, (which it is likely had much share in his impiety,) we must look in the concluding verses of the former chapter. Who was he, my dear? MARY. The son of Ahab, Mama.

MAMA. Almost enough, Mary, to insure his profligate breeding up; especially as his wicked parents' long reign and life allowed ample time for him to grow up under their corrupting influence. Did he follow the example of his father?

MARY. Oh yes;-it says, "he walked in his way."

MAMA. And what does that imply? What have we seen to be Ahab's prevailing sins?

MARY. Idolatry, Mama; "for he made a grove," and "worshipped Baal ;"—and hatred of good men, for he wanted to kill Elijah ;—and greediness, for he could not be happy without Naboth's vineyard; and many more bad things.

MAMA. Very right, my dear. You have mentioned the chief features of his unholy, and therefore unhappy life, very correctly. did Ahaziah walk in besides ?

Whose "

way"

MARY. Oh! Jezebel, you know; the wickedest woman that ever lived-that killed God's prophets by hundreds, and hired false witnesses to get Naboth stoned, and told Elijah she would have his life "by to-morrow morning."

MAMA. Good again, Mary! Your attention and memory give me great satisfaction. God grant, my dear, you may apply what you so well remember. Did Ahaziah go farther than his immediate parents for models of impiety?

MARY. Yes, Mama, he followed" Jeroboam the son of Nebat," who, you know, made golden calves for gods.

MAMA. No wonder God was

provoked to anger," as we read here! How did he testify his displeasure?

MARY. By cutting him off so soon, Mama, I suppose, for he only reigned two years.

MAMA. Yes, my dear; here, as in some cases we spoke of lately, early removal was an evident judgment, though it can never be safely taken as a general proof of God's anger, seeing that Ahab, Saul, and other capital offenders, lived to grow grey in sin, and were punished by being allowed "to fill up the measure of their iniquities."What accident did God make use of to "cut off" Ahaziah?

MARY. He "fell out of a lattice in his upper chamber." This was a very odd accident, surely, for a grown person.

MAMA. My dear, it is supposed he was sleeping, as is the custom of the Jews and other eastern nations in summer, on the flat roof of his house; down the stair or ladder leading to which a person suddenly or partially awaked might easily fall. But we need not seek far for second causes, when we know that God can make a false step, or a prick of a pin, as effectual a minister of vengeance as a lion or an army. Did the serious consequences of his fall convert Ahaziah, or lead him to seek the true God?

MARY. Oh, no! he never seems to have thought of Him! But, Mama, what made him leave his own false gods-of whom, I am sure, he had plenty —to seek and ask advice from Baalzebub, god of Ekron?

MAMA. Mary! what tempts us to forsake the God in whom we yet profess to believe-to seek our health, our honour, and our happiness from a thousand distant and untried idols? When one disappoints us, or we tire of it, we seldom fail to send forth "messengers," like Ahaziah, to bring us delusive hopes from a fresh quarter. Do you know the meaning of Baalzebub ?

MARY. No, Mama: Is it the same as Belzebub?

MAMA. Yes; and so has come to stand for a title of the devil generally; but its real signification is "King of Flies."

MARY. Oh, Mama! what a silly trifling name for people to give their god!

MAMA. You would not perhaps think so, were you aware what dreadful scourges, in hot countries, the insect tribes become. Modern travellers tell us, that Ethiopia, and parts of Abyssinia, are not only uninhabitable by men, at particular seasons, from the plague of "flies," but that the very herds of cattle flee for their lives, before