most influential men in the kingdom. Having exacted from them an oath of secrecy, he produced before them the long-lost descendant of David. They instantly acknowledged the child as king, took an oath of allegiance to him, and concerted with Jehoiada the plan of his restoration. On the appointed day Jehoiada, detaining the guard of Levites which was going off duty, and adding them to the guard that was coming on, armed the whole band from the armoury which David had established in the temple; little dreaming how soon they would be required to save the very existence of his line. He then brought the young king from his hiding-place, and set him upon the throne of his fathers, in the court of the Israelites, amid an armed guard, which stretched from one end of the temple to the other. He there put the crown on his head, the book of the law into his hand, and anointed him, while the people acclaimed, amid the sound of trumpets, "God save the king." Athaliah, alarmed at the shouts, interrupted the proceedings only to be led off to execution.

Thus was Jehoiada at length rewarded for the toils, the cares, and the perils, of his faithful guardianship. But he had only fixed his first step in the progress of national regeneration; the restoration of the line of David was but an introductory, though necessary part, of the restoration of that religion on which all its titles and privileges depended, without which it might as well have been allowed to become extinct as any other. The hundred and thirty-second psalm identifies the duration of this line with the maintenance of God's Church. This, the long-cherished de

sire of Jehoiada's heart, he had now no difficulty in accomplishing. The hearts of the people had been weaned from idolatry by the cruel oppression of the idolatrous faction which supported the tyranny of Athaliah. They readily listened to Jehoiada, whose next care was to reconcile them to God by a solemn covenant, taken by the king and people before the Lord, to the effect that they would be the Lord's people. This solemn act, which, like other precedents of the Old Testament, has been imitated with such mischievous absurdity, had a significant reference to the covenant made on Mount Sinai, with the whole people as God's peculiar people. It was, therefore, a proper expression of their disavowal of apostacy, and of their avowal of returning to the Lord. Josiah repeated it on a similar occasion. With the people in their resumed holy character, Jehoiada proceeded to demolish the temple of Baal, and extirpate his worship. These abominations having been cleared away, he turned his attention to the repairs of the long-neglected Temple. God blessed his latter years with the sight of the complete re-establishment of his altars, and now he might have exclaimed in the words of Simeon, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." It was indeed such a termination as few of God's saints have been allowed to behold in the flesh. He was born during the apostacy of Solomon, witnessed a long and exulting triumph of idolatry, and now officiated as high-priest in the Temple, to a faithful king and people. And he had the satisfaction of having been made God's instrument for so glorious a change. His high character

and powerful influence kept both the feeble king and the wayward people in adherence to the faith as long as he lived. The Lord mercifully took him away from the evil to come, at the age of one hundred and thirty. He was buried with great honours, and laid in the tomb of their kings, amid the lamentations of a king and people, who were shortly going once again to kill the prophets, and stone those that were sent unto them, in the person of his own son, and to return to wallow in the mire of the abominations from which he had delivered them.

ISAIAH.

B. c. 758.

No gift of God can be duly exercised without bringing its possessor some disquietude, such is the opposition with which the carnal constitution of things, both within and around him, will ever combat every exertion which has an origin so heavenly. But none, perhaps, ever brought more worldly sorrow to mix in the cup of the godly joy of its exercise than that of prophecy. God has much more occasion to warn man than to cheer him, and such is his presumption, that the delivery to him of the brightest promises requires the company of corresponding threats, and blessings in store demand preparatory chastisement, in order to their proper enjoyment. Hence the vision of the prophet must needs contain much to make him sorrowful. He has, perhaps, in distinct view the calamities and even overthrow of his country: perhaps even the captivity or death of families or men whom he reveres and loves, and the desolation of spots in which his heart delights. Hence, also, his commission is always ungrateful to those to whom he is sent, and he is met with persecution. But, since the affliction of the kingdoms of the earth is ever secondary to the coming of the fulness of the blessedness of the kingdom of heaven, he has the privilege

of seeing, through the darkest times, the distant dawn. of future bliss and glory, he has audience with the King of kings, and this may well embolden him in the threatening presence of the kings of this world. Elijah presents us with an illustrative example of the life of a prophet. But he has left no prophecy on record, and it is remarkable, that, of the prophets whose oracles have come down to us, we have no knowledge as to their history, except the scanty portion which we are enabled to glean from their writings. Yet these writings, when referred to the events of their days, let us deep into the mind of the prophet, and the instruction which we derive is not less profitable than that which we should have drawn from a narrative of their lives. Of all these men of God none has left us such copious materials for this pur✓ pose as Isaiah, the prince of their company. And it is, indeed, a high privilege to see the fortunes of the world spread beneath our view, and severally pointed out by his finger, as the poet represents them to have been shown to Adam, by the Arch-angel, from the mountain.

Isaiah was raised up by God at the very period which, of all others, is most suited to the purposes of the delivery of prophecy. Both the kingdoms of Israel and of Judah had recovered much of their ancient greatness, the former under the second Jeroboam, the latter under Uzziah. This proved, indeed, to be but the last broad glare of the flickering lamp thrown forth before final extinction, and the good and the wise looked with fear and trembling upon its ominous unsteadiness. The people were corrupt, and therefore their fortunes depended entirely on the