Note further how firmly and yet lovingly the sin of the northern
kingdom is touched on. The name of Jehovah as the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Israel, recalls the ancient days when the undivided people
worshipped Him, and the still more ancient, and, to hearers and
speakers alike, more sacred, days when the patriarchs received
wondrous tokens that He was their God, and they were His people; while
the recurrence of 'Israel' as the name of Jacob adds force to its
previous use as the name of all His descendants. The possible
rejection of the invitation, on the ground which the men of the north,
like the Samaritan woman, might have taken, that they were true to
their fathers' worship, is cut away by the reminder that that worship
was an innovation, since the fathers of the present generation had
been apostate from the God of _their_ fathers. The appeal to
antiquity often lands men in a bog because it is not carried far
enough back. 'The fathers' may lead astray, but if the antiquity to
which we appeal is that of which the New Testament is the record, the
more conservative we are, the nearer the truth shall we be.

Again, the message touched on a chord that might easily have given a
jarring note; namely, the misfortunes of the kingdom. But it was done
with so delicate a hand, and so entirely without a trace of rejoicing
in a neighbour's calamities, that no susceptibilities could be
ruffled, while yet the solemn lesson is unfalteringly pointed. 'He
gave them up to desolation, as ye see.' Behind Assyria was Jehovah,
and Israel's fall was not wholly explained by the disparity between
its strength and the conquerors'. Under and through the play of
criminal ambition, cruelty, and earthly politics, the unseen Hand
wrought; and the teaching of all the Old Testament history is
condensed into that one sad sentence, which points to facts as plain
as tragical. In deepest truth it applies to each of us; for, if we