art departed from me, a lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him.

"Then he found another man, and said, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man smote him, so that in smiting him he wounded him.

"So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with ashes upon his face.

"And as the king passed by, he cried unto the king: and he said, Thy servant went out into the midst of the battle; and, behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man: if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else thou shalt pay a talent of silver.

"And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the King of Israel said unto him, So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it.

"And he hasted, and took the ashes away from his face; and the King of Israel discerned him that he was of the prophets.

"And he said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, because thou hast let go out of thy hands a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people.

"And the King of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased, and came to Samaria."

4. THE VINEYARD.

Another parable is one spoken by God himself, through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah. It is taken from a vineyard, of which there were so many in the south of Palestine: and God compares that Holy Land "flowing with milk and honey," to a beautiful vineyard, of which He is the owner, and His people are the vines. Our Lord uses the same parable in the New Testament; and on one occasion He calls himself the vine, and His faithful people the branches. But let us read what

Isaiah says of Israel :

"Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

"And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

"And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

"And now, Go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:

"And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

"For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and He looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry."

NOTE.-Go to, an old English expression of repulse, which introduces the publication of a judgment and punishment of the guilty. It is the opposite of "Come now," which precedes an advance towards reconciliation.

QUESTIONS.

What was the parable of the son of the prophets? To whom was it spoken? On what occasion? Explain it. Why was Benhadad devoted to destruction? How did Ahab treat him? What is Isaiah's parable? Who is the "well-beloved?" What is the "fruitful hill?" The "vineyard?" Who were the "choicest vine?" What was "the hedge?" Why was it to be trodden down? How was this fulfilled? How are the "wild grapes " explained

CHAPTER XC.

PARABLES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT (continued).

1. THE CEDAR OF LEBANON AND THE BRAMBLE

Was a parable spoken by Jehoash, King of Israel, to Amaziah, King of Judah, who had just won a victory over the Edomites, and thought himself strong enough to attack the King of Israel. The latter answered in

the words of the parable, to teach him how very small and weak he was in the eyes of other people, and that it was his pride only that made him think so much of himself, and that pride would be the cause of his fall. The moral of this parable is very much the same as that of the fable of the frog and the ox. It seems to partake more of the nature of a fable than that of a parable.

"Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of

Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, King of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the face.

"And Jehoash the King of Israel sent to Amaziah King of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle.

"Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath lifted thee up: glory of this, and tarry at home: for why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?

"But Amaziah would not hear. Therefore Jehoash King of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah King of Judah looked one another in the face at Beth-shemesh, which belongeth to Judah.

"And Judah was put to the worse before Israel; and they fled every man to their tents.

"And Jehoash King of Israel took Amaziah King of Judah, the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, at Bethshemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim unto the corner gate, four hundred cubits.

"And he took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house, and hostages, and returned to Samaria." (2 Kings xiv. 8-14.)

2. THE TREES CHOOSING A KING.

This illustration seems very like a fable. The trees are supposed to speak and act like human beings, and the moral has only a religious bearing from the fact, that God was at that time the King of Israel.

The circumstance occurred after the death of Gideon. The people wanted to make him king after his victory over the Midianites, but he refused. When he died, his illegitimate son, Abimelech, went to his mother's family at Shechem, and told them he was their "bone and their flesh," and he asked them to speak a good word for him to the people. So they did, and they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the treasury of the house of Baal-berith; and he hired with the money "vain and light persons, which followed him." And he

be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.

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'Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife."

It is a very common thing in Jerusalem to see poor people keeping each a little ewe lamb. You cannot walk along the streets without seeing a boy or girl, sitting at a cottage door, fondling a little pet lamb, which is very often ornamented by little patches of coloured dye spotted about upon its wool, and a coloured ribbon round its neck. It seems to be the children's pet companion, like a favourite dog or cat with us: it lives in the house, is loved or prized by all the family, and seems to be "like a daughter."

QUESTIONS.

Who spoke the parable of the ewe lamb? To whom? For what? How had David confessed his sin? What did he fix as his punishment? Relate the parable. How are lambs treated at Jerusalem? Who was meant by the "lamb" in the parable? Who by the "poor man?" How was God more merciful than David? What punishment did He give him? How did David bear it?

CHAPTER LXXXVIII.

PARABLES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT (continued).

2. THE TWO BROTHERS STRIVING TOGETHER

Was a story made up by Joab, who sent a woman from Tekoah (which was a town not far from Hebron), who complained to King David that she was a poor widow who had lost her husband, and had only two sons left for her support. These two sons, she said, had quarrelled, and onc had killed the other: so being a murderer he had forfeited his life, and would be condemned by the law to be put to death: so she, a poor widow, would be left alone in the world with no one to keep her. She pleaded to the king for a royal pardon for her son, the murderer; and