Joppa (just the opposite way), and finding a ship sailing to Spain, he paid his fare and got on board. Then God sent a great storm, and the ship was nearly lost; so the sailors cast lots to see who had made God so angry, and the lot fell to Jonah. He was afraid then, and sorry; so he told them to throw him into the sea, and they did. Then the sea was calm.

But God set a whale to swallow Jonah; and when he prayed, the whale put him out on dry land. Then God told him to go to Nineveh; and he went and preached, and the people all repented, and prayed to God, so that He did not destroy the city. He spared it because there were 120,000 little children in it, who did not know right from wrong.

Then Jonah was displeased, because his words had not come true; but God reproved him for wishing that all these little children should be killed, merely to save his word.

AMOS (burden) was born at Tekoah, in Judah.

He was a shepherd and woodman, and was sent by God to warn the people against worshipping the calf at Bethel; but King Jeroboam II. ordered him away, and he was forced to go back to Judah.

HOSEA, or HOSHEA (Saviour), was the son of Beeri, and lived about the same time as Amos and Joel and Isaiah.

He prophesied in the reign of Uzziah, King of Judah, but chiefly spoke against the kingdom of Israel.

ISAIAH (salvation of Jah) was the son of Amoz (not the prophet).

He lived in the time of Uzziah, King of Judah, and on to the reign of Hezekiah, where we read a good deal about him in the Second Book of Kings. He told the king that the Assyrian army should all be destroyed, and that he should live fifteen years longer, when he was at the point of death. He foretold a great deal of the sufferings of our Saviour.

JOEL (whose God is Jehovah) was the son of Beth-u-el, and he was born at Beth-o-ron, twelve miles northwest of Jerusalem. The Jews say he lived in the time of Elisha; but it is more likely it was in the

time of Josiah or Hezekiah. He describes some great visitation; but the locusts probably mean the great armies of Assyria.

MICAH (who is like unto Jehovah ) is called the Morasthite (native of Morasthi, or probably of Maresha, i. 15), and is mentioned by Jeremiah (xxvi. 18). He lived in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. His book is full of warnings against the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

NAIUM (consolation) calls himself the Elkoshite (a native of Elkosh, said to have been in Galilee). He prophesied against Nineveh, as Jonah had done; so it had fallen back into sin. He speaks of locusts and grasshoppers, and of the great trade of Nineveh.

ZEPH-A-NI-AH (Jehovah hath guarded) was the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah. He lived in the reign of Josiah, King of Judah, and prophesied against the rich people at Jerusalem, the princes and merchants. He also warned the rich merchants of the coast (the Philistines) and the border tribes of Ammon and Moab, by the Dead Sea, that they should become like Sodom. Nineveh, too, was to be what it is now, a place for beasts to lie down in."

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JEREMIAH (appointed by Jehovah) was the son of Hilkiah, the priest, and he was born at Anathoth (the city of the priests, which is thought to be the same place as Nob, where Saul slew all the priests). It was in the tribe of Benjamin, on the hill behind the Mount of Olives, only an hour's walk from Jerusalem. He was a priest as well as a prophet.

He began to prophesy in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, King of Judah, and on to the eleventh year of Zedekiah, "unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month." So he lived through all the troubles, and was put into prison for telling the people what was coming upon them.

He was not taken captive; but a few people who were left came to him, and made him ask God if they should go down to Egypt to save themselves. And they waited at Bethlehem for him to ask God, who said they were not to go, and He would defend them; but they said

Jeremiah spoke falsely: so they went to Egypt, and took him with them, and there, it is supposed, they put him to death.

NOTES.-Nineveh, one of the oldest cities in the world, founded just after the flood, on the River Tigris: it was so large that it took a man three days to walk round it. Tarshish was in the

south of Spain.

QUESTIONS.

Who was Jonah? Where did God send him? Why did he not go? How large was Nineveh? Where was it? Where did Jonah go? What happened to him? How did he escape drowning? What did God order the second time? What did the Ninevites do? What was the result? Why did God spare Nineveh? Why did not Jonah like it? How did God reprove him? What are the names of the other prophets before the captivity? What do you know about Amos? and Isaiah? Who was Jeremiah? When did he live? How was he treated? Where did he die?

WHO IS MY NEIGHBOUR?

THY neighbour? It is he whom thou
Hast power to aid and bless,
Whose aching heart or burning brow
Thy soothing hand may press.

Thy neighbour? 'Tis the fainting poor,
Whose eye with want is dim,

Whom hunger sends from door to door;
Go thou and succour him.

Thy neighbour? 'Tis that weary man,
Whose years are at their brim,
Bent low with sickness, cares, and pain;
Go thou and comfort him.

Thy neighbour? 'Tis the heart bereft
Of every earthly gem;

Widow and orphan, helpless left;

Go thou and shelter them.

Thy neighbour? Yonder toiling slave,
Fettered in thought and limb,
Whose hopes are all beyond the grave;
Go thou and ransom him.

Oh! pass not, pass not heedless by,
Perhaps thou canst redeem
The breaking heart from misery;
Oh! share thy lot with him.

CHAPTER LXXIII.

THE RECHABITES.

THERE were some people called Kenites, who lived in tents amongst the Israelites. Jael, who drove the nail through Sisera's head, when he was asleep in her tent, was the wife of Heber, the Kenite.

These Kenites were the children of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, and so the people of Israel let them live in the land; but they did not give them any possession. They moved about with their tents from place to place.

But in the days of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, when Ne-bu-chad-nez-zar came up with his army, these Kenites were obliged to go into some town, where they could be safe from the Assyrian army; so they moved their tents inside the walls of Jerusalem, for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians.

They were very quiet, peaceable people, and they were always good friends to the Israelites; but they never altered their ways of living, and they served God, as Jethro had done, and never took to the worship of Baal, or those other idols that the children of Israel worshipped.

When they were living in Jerusalem, just before it

was taken by the Assyrians and destroyed, God sent the prophet Jeremiah to one tribe of these Kenites. They were called Rechabites; because Rechab was the old chief of that tribe, and Jonadab was his son, who joined Jehu in killing the worshippers of Baal.

"The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, King of Judah, saying,

"Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.

"Then I took the whole house of the Rechabites; "And I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan:

"And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine and cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine.

"But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your sons for

ever:

"Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers.

"Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he hath charged us, to drink no wine, all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters;

"Nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:

"But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.

"Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying,

"Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words? saith the Lord.

"The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he