be, did nevertheless perfectly right. You are bound to do all that will oblige a brother; you are bound to render to superiors all that is due in reverence, in courtesy, in right; but you are not bound to give up that for which you exist, and the rights without which, even dare you surrender them, you would be poor and destitute indeed. In fact, it is by each maintaining in his place the rights that are his due, and fulfilling the duties that have those rights for their basis, that the harmony, and order, and good will of all is most thoroughly and extensively maintained.

He

When Naboth had told Ahab what he was bound to tell him that he could not give up the vineyard he had inherited-Ahab, like a silly, weak-minded, impetuous, ill-tempered man, went home displeased; and because he could not get what he had no right to ask, and what the Jezreelite had no power to give, it is said “he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread;" punishing himself very properly for his own conduct. seems not to have been favoured, but rather visited with a wife, of an impetuous and tyrannical disposition, who evidently was the real ruler in the midst of Israel; and she instantly said to Ahab, "Why is thy spirit so sad, that thou eatest no bread?" And he told her, like a child that had not got the toy it had clutched at, like an infant that had seen something that had ruffled its little temper, "Because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me thy vineyard for money; or else, if it please thee, I will give thee another vineyard for it; and he answered, I will not give thee my vineyard." And Jezebel said, "What is the meaning of this?

Dost

thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Are you a king, and yet not exercising the power and the prerogative of a king? Have you forgotten, Ahab, my husband, that you can take by might what this illnatured and avaricious Naboth will not give you? Arise, eat bread, let thine heart be merry; put the matter in my hands, I will manage the whole business for you with perfect success; and the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, depend upon it, shall be yours." So he consented, abdicated his sovereignty, put it in her hands, and she wrote letters in his name, I suppose with his connivance or consent, sealed them with the royal seal, sent the letters to the nobles and the elders, and told them, on the authority of the king, to proclaim a fast, making piety a pretence. What a sad thing it is that the greatest wickedness has always been perpetrated under the most sanctimonious pretences; and never has wickedness been soo flagrant as when a fast has been proclaimed in order to cover the atrocity of it. Yet we are not to blame religion for this. It is said that hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue. We do not deny that there are justice, and truth, and love, and mercy in the world, because all these have been made to cover nefarious designs; and we must not cast upon the robes of religion imputations that really spring from the depraved heart. And it is because religion has a hold on the human conscience that men make a bad use of it, in order to be a covert for their wicked and unjust designs. Accordingly "they proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. And there came in two men, children of Belial;" bad and vile in every sense of the word, who were ready to swear

anything that was wanted, provided they were well paid and patronized in doing so. They swore that they heard Naboth blaspheme; a thing that never entered into the poor man's mind. The consequence was that under this guilt laid upon the innocent man, he was taken out and stoned, and put to death. Then Jezebel came and told Ahab, Now eat bread, do not trouble yourself any more, take possession of the vineyard, for Naboth the Jezreelite is now dead.

But when all seemed victory, just as in the case of the despot of Babylon, "Is not this great Babylon that I have built ?" the handwriting appeared upon the wall; in this instance the Spirit of God spoke through his organ Elijah, and pronounced upon Ahab and his house a withering and fearful judgment. Punishment often seems lame, but its course is certain, sin is followed by retribution; and such sin as this, as sure as sound has its echo, light its shadow, cause its consequence and effect-such sin as this will never go without severe chastisement. And you will notice that though punishment may follow with all the softness of a step of velvet, when it comes up with you, as it will assuredly do at last, it will strike with a hand of steel. Just as Naboth had been killed, and the dogs-as has happened in Eastern countrieshave licked his blood, so shall it be with Jezebel. The same punishment is reserved for her: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. "And when Ahab heard these words, he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly." And then, what is most remarkable, when even this wicked, this bad man, humbled himself; oh, how merciful is God, and what an encourage

ment to the chiefest of sinners not to continue in their sin, but to flee to Him who has mercy to pardon it. God mitigated the penalty he had pronounced, and put off the judgments that were to descend upon his house to the next generation of his successors.

LYING SPIRITS.

I KINGS XXII.

CHARACTER OF AHAB. FALSE PROPHETS. THE PROPHET THAT COULD NOT BE BRIBED. THE LYING SPIRIT.

MYSTERIES.

THERE is only time to make a few explanatory remarks upon what might strike one at first blush as difficulties in the chapter which I have now read. On successive Sunday mornings we have read the history, the cruelties, and the crimes of this Ahab, the unhappy and misguided king of Israel. Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, the two loyal tribes; Ahab the king of the ten tribes-the two here coalesce; Jehoshaphat evidently a Christian man, Ahab as he was in life is the same now, hardened, superstitious, bigoted and cruel as his death approaches. Well, he wished to know," Shall go up and fight against the king of Syria, and shall I succeed ?" Jehoshaphat said, "As far as I am concerned, my horses are your horses, and my people are your people." But he said with characteristic piety, "Would it not be as well to ask if God approves of this step; because if He approves it then we may pray for

I

success; if He do not, then there is little success to be anticipated." The king of Israel gathered together all those false prophets of Baal; though the heavens had thundered and the sky had lightened, and miracles most stupendous had been done to persuade him that the Lord Jehovah alone was the living and the true God; yet the miserable and hardened man had recourse in his last moments to these bad prophets, who were prepared to prophesy smooth things or painful things according to the golden stimulus that was placed in each of their hands. He therefore called them, and the answer that they gave was, "Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king." It has been supposed that this prediction of the false prophets is a sort of equivocation; and that the Hebrew may be rendered so that it may mean, "The Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king," or 66 shall deliver the king into the hand of it:" just as many of you may recollect in classic story when you read of the heathen oracles of Diana, and the Delphi, and the Pythoness, that they gave predictions which were capable of two constructions. Many may recollect the celebrated one, "I say that thou wilt conquer the Romans," or that "the Romans will conquer thee;" it is susceptible of both translations; and whichever way the event turned out, they believed in the infallibility of the oracle. Now it has been supposed that this was the idea in this instance; and that they gave him an equivocal prediction, which was fit for either event-the success of the king or the success of the Syrians. However, Jehoshaphat said, with great quietness, finding no fault with it, "Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might enquire of him;" evidently not