brought him certain messages that his foes should be destroyed, and
promised him, for a sign, that great blessing of the House of David,
that the Virgin's Son should be born, and should be God present with us.




LESSON VIII.

THE KINGDOM OF SAMARIA.

"As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the
water."--_Hosea_, x. 7.


Many promises had marked out Ephraim for greatness, and at first the
new kingdom seemed quite to overshadow the little rocky Judah. But the
founder of the dominion of the ten tribes sowed the seeds of decay,
because, like Saul, he would not trust to the God who had given him his
crown. He was afraid his subjects would return to the kings of the House
of David, if he let them go to worship at Jerusalem, and therefore
revived the old symbol of a calf, which he must have seen in Egypt in
his exile, setting up two shrines at Bethel and at Dan, the two ends of
his kingdom, bidding his people go thither to offer sacrifice. Thus he
made Israel to sin; and while hoping to strengthen his power, was the
cause of its ruin. Prophets warned him in vain, that his line should
not remain on the throne; and in the reign of his son Nadab, the rebel
Baasha arose and slew the whole family of this first king of the
idolatrous realm, in the year 952. Baasha was not warned by the fate of
Nadab, but followed the same courses; and his son Elah and all his house