words meant anything, Ahab was himself to fall, and his fall might involve his ally. We earnestly hope to read that Jehoshaphat has separated from Israel, and that his heralds are sounding a proclamation of return at once to Jerusalem. Alas! it is not so. He has not one word of intercession to offer for the oppressed Micaiah, whom Ahab menaces and imprisons. And he acts, for a religious man, sinfully; for a prudent man, unadvisedly; for a king, whose life is valuable to his own subjects, unwarrantably. Ahab has, no doubt, heard that his own life is the special mark of the Syrians. At any rate, he determines to save it by disguising himself. But Jehoshaphat is to put on his robes, and to exhibit himself as the general. This piece of foolish good-nature, we know not how else to term it, had nearly cost him his life. The Syrians supposed him to be the king of Israel, and pressed him fiercely with their attacks. It was only on Jehoshaphat's crying out, and through God's assistance coming to him, that they were moved to depart from him. As for the wicked Ahab, how vain his precautions were; how a bow drawn at random, drawn contrary to the king of Syria's injunctions, sped an arrow against him: this belongs to another history. Our sympathies, and our narrative, are occupied with the weak, but not unrighteous Jehoshaphat. We rejoice to find from our text that he escaped unharmed from the battle; that he returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem.

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We trust that he returned thither a sadder and a wiser man; that his conscience had already reproached him with what he had done; and that he made many earnest resolves of firmer and more consistent conduct. And we may not doubt that this was the case. Jehu, the son of Hanani, the seer, went out to meet him. His words were words of rebuke; yet the humbled monarch did not resent them as Asa, his father, had resented the words on a somewhat similar occasion of Jehu's father; and, probably, because he did not resent them, words of encouragement were added. "Shouldst thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek the Lord." The king does not answer in wordsperhaps his heart is too full-but his deeds are more eloquent by far than any words could have been. He commences anew his efforts for the religious welfare of his people; he visits personally the whole of his kingdom as a royal missionary of the truth-he reforms the courts of law in Jerusalem-he makes ample provision for the administration of justice by setting judges in every city, and though some, perhaps, might reproach him with his own want of moral courage in what he had so recently done, he does not scruple to say, to the officers whom he appointed, "Deal courageously, and the Lord shall be with the good."

The next event in his life is a pleasing one. It would seem that soon after his return he was threatened by a formidable confederacy of Ammonites, Moabites, and other predatory tribes, as the Edomites of Mount Seir, who appeared among the rich gardens of Engedi, to the west of the Dead Sea. Jehoshaphat does not essay an expedition without consulting God; and a prophet is sent to comfort him by a promise of divine deliverance. His army then sets out in the guise rather of a religious procession than of a band of warriors. Arrived at the field of action, it remains motionless, singing praise to the Lord God. A misunderstanding breaks out among the enemy; they turn their arms one against the other; they fall in multitudes by mutual slaughter; and Judah has only to plunder their camp, and to bless God for the victory He has wrought for them.

It is painful to turn from this scene to Jehoshaphat's next act; to find that though Ahab is dead, the spell of that fatal affinity is still about the king of Judah. Ahaziah, Ahab's son, is notorious for his great wickedness; yet Jehoshaphat joins himself to him, and undertakes with him a commercial enterprise. No doubt, if he argued at all, he said, "this does not involve personal intercourse, it is merely a partnership in capital for the good of our respective peoples, it is a fair and legitimate opening for industry and energy. And did not Solomon himself build vessels at the very port at which ours will be built? Did not

he thus convert the Red Sea into a servant, and bring abundant riches, the productions of Ophir and Tarshish, and many a region besides, into his treasury?" When a man has determined upon a thing he has arguments enough to support it. But however he argued, he was wrong; and a prophet, Eliezer, was sent to rebuke him. "Because thou hast joined thyself to Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken thy works." The ships were broken at Ezion-geber without setting out on their voyage. Jehoshaphat, we may believe, saw his error, for on Ahaziah's desiring to renew the attempt, and to associate their crews together, it is really a relief to read, "Jehoshaphat would not.”

Ahaziah dies soon after, and Jehoram (or Joram), his brother, is his successor. His character is shortly summed up in Holy Scripture. "He wrought evil in the sight of the Lord;" there is only this palliation of it, "but not like his father and like his mother; for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made." It may be that Jehoshaphat had heard of this partial attempt at amendment; and that it opened his heart towards him. Shall he not take him by the hand? shall he not encourage him by his own personal example? It is strange, however, that one who had been rebuked for allying himself with Ahab, and for allying himself with Ahaziah, should so unhesitatingly league himself with Joram. He is requested by him to take part in repelling an invasion of the Moabites, who had shaken off their allegiance to Israel

on hearing of Ahab's death. His very reply to the request is suggestive of sad memories. We wonder he did not recall an occasion on which he used the same words. "I am as thou art, my people as thy people, and my horses as thy horses." Surely there must have risen up before him, that morning when "in the void place in the entrance of the gate of Samaria," two kings were sitting, clothed in royal apparel, and girt by a glorious and splendid assembly; and that evening at Ramoth-Gilead, when one of those very kings lay dead in his chariot, and the other had escaped, with difficulty, from the hands of the warriors of Syria. But Jehoshaphat uses them without scruple this second time. And without consulting God, he summons the tributary king of Edom and his forces, and takes the field with Joram. How distress and drought overtook the army of the three confederates; how Elisha came to their assistance, and declared that for the sake of Jehoshaphat, the Lord would deliver them; how a miracle was wrought, at once to relieve their necessities, and to mislead the hosts of the enemy, we may not pause to tell. It is more important to observe how Jehoshaphat appears in the transaction. That ancient fault, his evil alliance, is still entangling him; his temper of too easy compliance has not yet deserted him; he is, indeed, as ever, amiable and well-meaning; he is not of those who omit seeking God altogether, but he seeks God too late; he seeks Him after acting, or in the midst of action, instead of