this, to note the working of those very forces which have appeared again and again in national life. We may see certain of them in our own modern world, and here in the United States. It would be a most useful line of work for the student to analyze these, and note where the same appear in the present day, and estimate their significance. This philosophical study of history is of the greatest importance.

The Two Kingdoms

I. A word of practical advice bearing on this chapter. (1) It is most desirable to have a good Relief Map of the Holy Land. It is wise for a school to invest in a large Relief Map, which is not only accurate but is vividly illustrative. They sell at $12 and at $5. If a school cannot afford this, then secure the MacCalla wall map or the Collotype Photo Map showing the topographical feature of the land.

(2) The series of Kent and Madsen's Maps, eight in all, is invaluable. The cost, $15, is not prohibitive.

(3) The Littlefield Outline Political Maps are designed *for color work, and indicate the political situation at different epochs of Biblical history, and these give the general course of the history by showing the successive political changes. These maps may be mounted in note-books together with written outlines of the events and with pictures and scriptural selections. In advanced historical work the maps will show the relation of Israel to the surrounding nations, and can be used in connection with any subsequent studies of the Jewish people. The cost of these maps is very low, only 15 cents for the set of fifteen, and so within the reach of everyone. The Travis Outline HandMaps are also very useful, costing 40 cents a book for the Hand maps.

(4) The Bailey Series of outline Maps cover the History of Israel. These maps are accurate, and printed on excellent paper to take ink, crayon or water color. They are of uniform size, and if colored by the student in the

progress of study, become a complete and graphic illustration of Old Testament History. They are very cheap, costing but 2 cents each, or 65 cents per hundred.

The preceding chapter has dealt with the causes which led up to the division of the old kingdom of David and Solomon. This chapter will briefly describe the two kingdoms formed after the Great Schism.

II. The name Judah was naturally chosen for the Southern Kingdom. It embraces not Benjamin only but the priests and Levites, who were ejected from the Kingdom of Israel, and rallied to the House of David. Later on in history when the Northern Kingdom had been destroyed, and all distinction between the ten tribes and Judah and Benjamin had vanished during the Captivity, the scattered nation had no visible head, except in Jerusalem, which was once more in possession of the returned exiles of Judah. Thus the name Judah (or Jew) was applied to the entire nation. The tribe of Judah stands for all the twelve tribes. The name Israel was applied to the Northern Kingdom in recognition of the larger extent and the fact that it embraced ten out of twelve tribes. We see in this fact also that pride and assumption of superiority which marked the great tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. They had inherited from the old days of Joshua and the period of the Judges a sense of primacy and leadership, and we know how restive they were under the advancement of Judah in the Royal House of David. Indeed, it is not unlikely that this old rivalry had something to do with bringing to a head the revolt under Jeroboam, and the division of the Kingdom.

III. The Size of Territory. The area of the territory of the Southern Kingdom could not have been more than

one-half of that of its northern rival, while the amount of arable land was less than one-fourth. The area of Judah, however, during the greater part of its history was greatly increased by the territory of Edom, over which the Judeans continued to exercise a suzerainty. Similarly, at the division, the territory of the Moabites fell to the tribes of the north. Although the land of Judah was much smaller, it enjoyed certain advantages of position not shared by the Northern Kingdom. On the east, the Dead Sea, with its barren shores, proved an efficient barrier against Moabite or Ammonite invasion. On the south extended the desert, which barred the way against all invaders, except the wandering Arabs, whose attacks, although troublesome, were no menace to the nation's life. After their power was broken by David, the Philistines, whose lands bounded Judah on the west, never again united for the conquest of Hebrew soil. For two centuries the Northern Kingdom proved an effective buttress against the formidable attacks of the great world powers from the north. The only foe which Judah had cause to fear was Egypt, and Egypt's ambitions and capabilities were limited to desultory forays into Canaan. Israel, on the other hand, by virtue of its position was obliged to engage in a constant and desperate struggle for existence. Its bars were all down. The broad valleys which led into the heart of the land furnished natural highways for hostile armies. Egyptian invasion penetrated its territory also, while from the northeast there came, almost yearly, Aramean, and later Assyrian armies, which gradually drained its life-blood.-KENT.

IV. Natural Resources. The natural resources of the two Kingdoms presented even greater contrasts. Judah's territory was strewn with limestone rocks. The little soil

between yielded only a meagre subsistence in return for the most wearisome labor. Water, the absolute requisite for animal and vegetable life, was doled out by nature most sparingly. While great wealth was impossible, a sufficient livelihood could be gained by toil. It was a land calculated to develop hardy, earnest, courageous men, fond of their rocky hills, and tenacious of their customs and religion. It furnished no surplus of products to tempt its inhabitants to seek a foreign market, and the barriers which encircled them intensified the tendency to remain at home. In Israel, on the contrary, the rocks were concealed by rich soil, abounding in springs which called forth everywhere a rich vegetation. Broad plains, easily tilled, furnished a generous supply of grain. Contrasted with Judah, it was indeed "a land flowing with milk and honey." Its wealth, however, encouraged commerce and attracted the invader. It gave to Israel material prosperity and commanding prestige, but with these came temptations and dangers unknown to Judah. It tended to develop a luxurious, pleasure-loving people, far more susceptible to foreign influences than their poor cousins living among the limestone hills in the south.-KENT.

V. Characteristics of Population. Judah's inferiority in size and numbers was more than compensated for by the unity and homogeneity of its population. The tribe of Judah not only dominated the Southern Kingdom, but it had so completely absorbed the Simeonites, and the Arabian clans, which it had found in possession of its southern territory, that it was a nation made up of one tribe. The interests of the people were the same, since their land presented little diversity and limited its inhabitants to the culture of the vine and the raising of sheep and cattle.