This good king was beguiled into the great error of forming alliance with Ahab, the wicked and idolatrous monarch who, at that time, ruled in Israel. For this Jehoshaphat was reproved by the word of the Lord, through the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani:—but he had promised to assist Ahab, and they together fought against the Syrians, and were discomfited; Ahab was slain, and his people were scattered "as sheep that have no shepherd:" as it had been foretold by the prophet Micaiah, the son of Imlah, whom Ahab hated and persecuted, because he declared unto him the word of the Lord, and testified against the lying spirit that spake by the false prophets. After this, "the children of Moab, and Ammon, and Mount Seir,"

"came against Jehoshaphat to battle."-"And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord; even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord." And Jehoshaphat stood in the midst of the congregation, in the house of the Lord, and offered up a fervent prayer for deliverance: and the "Spirit of the Lord" came upon Jehaziel, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, who foretold the destruction of the host that had invaded the border of Judah. "The Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah, and they were smitten." And when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness of "Tekoa, they looked unto the multitude, and behold they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped." On

this miraculous deliverance Jehoshaphat and his people praised the Lord their God; and they returned to Jerusalem with joy: they were also enriched with abundance of treasures and precious stones-the spoils of their enemies. Yet, "after this did Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who did very wickedly; and they made ships to go to Tarshish.""Then Eliezer the son of Dodanah of Mareshah, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken thy works. And the ships were broken, that they were not able to go to Tarshish." How forcibly does this exemplify the danger and the sin of being intimately associated with those who fear not God!

CHAP. LXV.-Although Jehoshaphat evinced a disposition too easily influenced, by which he was repeatedly betrayed into error and jeopardy, yet his heart was steadfast with his God. He was succeeded in the kingdom by his son Jehoram, who walked not in the way of his father, but "in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab; for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife; and he wrought that which was evil in the sight of the Lord."-" And there came a writing" to Jehoram from Elijah, the great prophet of Tishbe, in the country of Gilead; who was commissioned to denounce, against this wicked and obdurate king, the righteous judgment of the omnipotent Jehovah; declaring that the Lord would smite him with dreadful disease, and also send "a great plague"

upon his wives and his children. This awful sentence was executed on him and on his house. After enduring, for two years, an extremity of bodily torture, he "departed without being desired." His sons were slain, the youngest only escaping; him "the inhabitants of Jerusalem made king in his stead."—" He also walked in the way of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly." For more than a hundred years after this time the kings of Judah forsook the God of their fathers; worshipping idols, and committing gross iniquity; by which they brought on themselves and on their people much misery and desolation. But, at length, in the reign of Uzziah (or Azariah) who "sought the Lord," the kingdom of Judah prospered. His son Jotham also "became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God." At this time, and during the two succeeding reigns, Isaiah the son of Amos prophesied, declaring "the vision which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem," denouncing the judgments of God for the sinfulness and degeneracy of the people. Isaiah also foretold the calamities that should befall the kingdoms of Syria and Israel, and the destruction of the great army of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, who invaded Judah, and blasphemously defied the Most High God. The prophet narrates circumstantially the deliverance that was wrought for his country, when the angel of the Lord smote the Assyrian host: he also predicted the fall of the Babylonians, Philistines, Moabites, Egyptians, Tyrians, &c. But the most deeply interesting portion of his remarkable vision relates to the advent of the promised Redeemer

-the "rod out of the stem of Jesse;" the glory and blessedness of whose spiritual reign are set forth in various portions of his prophecy. Isaiah describes in terms of literal exactness (as though the events had actually occurred) the sufferings of the Messiah, his death and burial, and the circumstances which marked the unbelief of the Jewish people; as well as the ultimate victory of Christ over all that should oppose the establishment of his dominion. The varied scenes -the overthrow of kingdoms, the destruction of cities, the subversion of dynasties, which Isaiah foretold, were, as authentic history proves, realized even in their minutest details, perfectly attesting the immutable verity of Holy Scripture. Cotemporary with Isaiah were the prophets Hosea, the son of Beeri, of the kingdom of Israel; Amos, of the herdmen of Tekoa in Judah, and Micah of Moresheth, a village of Judah. Each of these holy men proclaimed to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all the people of Judah and Israel, the judgments of Jehovah that were impending over them. The vision of Micah extends to gospel times. He points out the place whence He should come forth, who was "to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old-from everlasting." In strains of sublime eloquence this prophet describes the power and majesty of Christ, and the happiness of his kingdom; and reiterates the prophecy of his great cotemporary, Isaiah the son of Amos, that "In the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains;" that "people shall flow unto it; and

many nations shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." Of this blessed era these prophets declare, that "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." May it please Jehovah to hasten that day! It is supposed that Joel, the son of Pethuel, lived at this time, and uttered his solemn words of warning to the people of Judah: to which he adds a brief description of the retributive justice of God, that should befall Tyre, Sidon, Egypt, and Edom, which had, at various periods, oppressed Israel. Joel prophesied of the glory of the church in the latter days, when the Lord should be "in the midst of Israel," and the Holy Spirit become the teacher and inspirer of the Christian believer. On the memorable day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost "filled all the house" where the disciples of Jesus were assembled, and they were all (both men and women) baptized, not with water, but by the promised "power from on high," the Apostle Peter declared to the astonished "multitude" who "came together," "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my hand-maidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy." Another remarkable prophet appeared in Israel in the reigns of