revolted. It was therefore but a natural step from this Calf-worship to those later days, when there fell upon the Northern Kingdom all the coarse and sensual degredation of Ahab's reign. Jeroboam founded his kingdom thus upon a false and gross system of faith, which carried within it the complete disruption of his dynasty and the undoing of his people.

II. The Passing of Jeroboam. His son Nadab came to the throne only to be assassinated by Baasha, who seized the government and put the house of Jeroboam to the sword. Baasha was evidently a man of obscure origin, a soldier of Issachar, who had been advanced in the service of Jeroboam, but had also learned too well the lesson of Jeroboam's own royal ambition and the secret of advancement. He kept his residence at Tirzah, where Jeroboam had lived, and here in this old Canaanitish city were buried the first four kings of Israel. Here and at Jezreel, where Ahab built his royal palace, and at Samaria, which Omri chose, were residences which vied with Shechem, though they never became, like the latter, the real capital of the North. -STANLEY, Sinai and Palestine, pp. 240, 340.

Baasha's military policy was aggressive. He sought a conflict with Judah, evidently with an idea of bringing the two Kingdoms under one rule, and so rivalling the glories of David's conquests. But Asa of Judah counterplotted against him, and won to his own side Benhadad, the King of Damascus, and so recovered the fortress of Ramah, which had been seized and strongly fortified by Baasha. Indeed he was compelled to fly to the north to meet an invasion by his tricky ally Benhadad, who had swept down and captured Dan and overrun all the land of Naphtali (I Kings 15:20). Then there fell upon him the fierce denunciation

of a prophet, whose name we do not know, and who condemned him for the murder of Nadab and his adherence to the religious errors of Jeroboam. His reign of twentyfour years was followed by that of Elah, his son, who was a dissolute and a drunkard, and was himself assassinated at a banquet by Zimri, one of his officers, who put to death the entire family of Baasha. But seven days later Zimri was defeated by command of Omri, who had been elected to the throne by the army. He marched on Tirzah, the capital, and was welcomed by the populace. Zimri fled to the palace, and setting fire to it, .committed suicide.

III. Omri abandoned Tirzah, and selected Samaria. There he erected a fortress on a bold hill, some four hundred feet high. It was famous for beauty, as Isaiah refers to it "Ephraim's crown of pride on the head of the fat valley". (Isaiah 28:1-6). For eleven years he reigned and was succeeded by Ahab, the most famous of all the kings of Israel. He was a man of marked ability, a shrewd politician and diplomat, who apparently measured methods and policies from an altogether different point than the traditional Jewish view. He followed the example of Solomon and entered into a marriage with Jezebel, the brilliant daughter of Ethbaal, the King of Sidon. But where Solomon was the religious dilettante, Ahab became the aggressive promoter of a new faith. Solomon allowed temples and shrines for any God as a matter of indifference, Jeroboam set up his images of the Golden Bull but claimed that they were the symbols of that very God, Jehovah, which had led the people from Egypt and was still their God, and he did this probably because he wanted to concentrate the religious interests of his people on their own national shrine instead of the Temple at Jerusalem.

IV Ahab and Jezebel. To understand the tremendous change brought by Ahab's policy we must consider the distinctive features of the religious system he introduced.

1. Asiatic thought conceived of the two great divine attributes in nature-male and female. These were the deities recognized by the Phoenicians, and worshipped under the names of Baal and Ashtaroth. Moloch, the divinity of the Canaanites, corresponds to Baal, as the God of fire, heat, devouring flame.

2. Connected with this worship there grew up in the ancient world customs of the deepest superstition and degradation, characterized by the most wanton and sensual rites.

3. Human sacrifices as well as animal were part of this worship. This custom was based upon the idea that children are the dearest possession of their parents, and because they represent the creative power of life, so they are a fitting sacrifice to the Baal, who is himself the source of creation or birth.

4. The Jews had built high places to Baal, to burn their children by fire as a burnt offering to Baal. This was the supreme sacrifice. We recall the way in which Abraham was delivered from this awful creed of human sacrifice by the demand for the life of Isaac. From that day onward the Hebrew mind had been held back from the practice of human sacrifice. Now, however, they are here, close to the people whose religion still cherished these ancient primeval doctrines of sacrifice. Jeremiah (32:35) delivers one of his most powerful prophecies against this awful superstition.

5. It was a religion based on these ancient doctrines, and involving the same carnal and sensual rites, which

Ahab introduced into his kingdom by his marriage with Jezebel.

This policy of Ahab was adopted in order, no doubt, to secure an alliance against Assyrian ambitions. But with Jezebel as Queen, there came a stronger will and character than his own. She was a brilliant, aggressive woman, "in whom," as Stanley says, "with the reckless, licentious habits of an Oriental Queen, were united the fiercest and sternest qualities inherent in the old Semitic race. The wild license of her life and the magical fascination of her arts or her character became a proverb in the nation." (I Kings 16:25, 26.).

Let us briefly notice the progress of this Phoenician propaganda. She secured its establishment on a grand scale at the court of Ahab. This was accomplished more easily because of what Jeroboam and Omri had already done. Then two sanctuaries were set up, one at each of the two new capitals: one devoted to Ashtaroth at Jezreel with four-hundred priests supported out of the royal purse, and one at Samaria dedicated to Baal with accommodations for four-hundred and fifty priests or prophets.

V. The Advent of Elijah. The next step was that of persecution. She sent her officers in all directions, destroying every altar of Jehovah. The story is not fully told us. But we see the followers of Jehovah hiding here and there in dens and caves of the earth, until it seemed as if there were none left in the whole land who had not bowed the knee to Baal. It was at this juncture that Elijah arose. He seemed to stand, as he said, "Alone, alone, alone" for this is the meaning of the words "I, even I only" (I Kings 18:22). He was a man of stern will, fearless, swift of movement, passing from point to point, appearing here or

there suddenly, like an apparition. About him gathered strange stories, stories of incredible daring, of mysterious and awful sanctity, a prophet of fierce invective, of startling venture, creating a nameless terror as he moved from place to place, pronouncing solemn judgments, chiding cowardice, rebuking a degenerate people, smiting the conscience of men with fear of retribution and then vanishing as strangely as he came. He was no man's friend, he had no home, no family, only the night and the storm seemed his, and the awful wrath of God, a mysterious man, come to set right the wrongs of earth, to-day by the brook Cherith in the Jordan valley; to-morrow before the gates of the king's palace, then snatched out of sight by the wrath of God who guarded him. It is interesting to see in this remarkable man the representative of the Trans-Jordanic tribes. Living beyond the Jordan, they preserved more of the primitive simpler life of early days. They are described vividly and picturesquely in the list of David's mighty men (I Chronicles 12:8). His appearance presents "all the characteristics of the genuine Bedouin ennobled by a high prophetic mission"-men with "faces like lions, whose feet were swift as roes upon the mountains," shaggy of hair, clothed with a rough mantle of sheepskin bound with a girdle of hide.

VI. The Great Appeal. The scene on Mount Carmel was the pivotal event of his ministry. The limits of this chapter make impossible the description of this great ordeal. The day dawns with its fierce heat, under a sky that for three years had had no rain. The ordeal is between Jehovah, the God of Israel, and the Baal of their apostasy, who, they claim, is the God of nature and the creative forces of life. Elijah directs the trial. The priests of