liars, and what dreadful punishments he sends them. Never try to get things by telling lies, for if no one should find you out, God sees you, and will send you to hell. Perhaps you have told lies already. O dear children, confess your lies to God. He will forgive you, because Jesus died, that sinners might be forgiven.

Gehazi thought no eye beheld,

When he the Syrian's gift conceal'd;

But God, to whom all things are known,
His deeds had to Elisha shown.

Though innocent he tried to look,
Yet sure the guilty servant shook,
When all the wicked plans he made,
Were by Elisha open laid.

His greedy heart had long'd to gain
Of men, and maids, a goodly train,
And fields that yielded corn, and wine,
And flocks of sheep, and herds of swine.

But while he dreamt of years of ease,
His flesh was fill'd with foul disease;
Covered with scales of loathsome white,
He fled from good Elisha's sight.

CHILD.

O glory to God's holy name,
If I have never dar'd to frame

234

THE LAST KING OF ISRAEL,

A lie so covetous, and bold,

As that which once Gehazi told.

Yet God accounts it wickedness
To wish for things I don't possess ;
And I have oft in secret sigh'd
For things that God to me denied.

Each thought is notic'd by thine eye,
And written in the book on high.
I know my sins are written there.
For Jesu's sake, a sinner spare.

CHAPTER LXXIV.

THE LAST KING OF ISRAEL, AND HIS PEOPTE.

2 Kings xvii. 1—24.

My dear children, I have told you a great deal about Elisha. You have heard what a great many wonders he did. Did the people of Israel mind what he said, or did they still go on in wickedness? they went on in their wickedness.

At last Elisha died. God did not take him up to heaven in a chariot of fire. He died in his bed, and his spirit went to heaven, but his body

was buried in the ground. After Elisha was dead, the people of Israel grew still more wicked. King Ahab had been a wicked king, and Ahaziah his son had been wicked, and the next king was wicked: and when he died, there was another king, and he was wicked; and at last he died, and there was another king, and he was wicked; and there were a great many kings of Israel one after the other, and they were all wicked. At last God deter

mined to send a great punishment to all the people of Israel.

You shall hear what it was.

There was a king, who lived a great way off, in a country called Assyria, and the king was called the king of Assyria. He was a heathen king, and was very rich, and he had a great many soldiers who could fight well. The king of Assyria came with his soldiers into the land of Canaan, and fought against the people, and conquered them; they got into all their towns, and took away their things in them, and they took the people away to be their slaves. How unhappy the people of Israel were, when they were taken away from their

houses and gardens, and obliged to go a great way off, and work very hard!

This was the punishment God sent them at last, because they would worship idols, and do many wicked things. They never came into their own country again, but heathen people came and lived in it.

I hope, my dear children, that you will not be like the people of Israel, for if you are, God will send you some great punishment at last. If he does not punish you while you live, he will as soon as you are dead.

CHAPTER LXXV.

HEZEKIAH, OR THE KING WHO TRUSTED IN GOD.

2 Kings xviii; xix.

about some

I AM now going to speak to you thing I told you a long while ago. I shall be much pleased, if I find that you have not forgotten it, for it is a thing hard to remember. Do you remember that God had been

angry with king Solomon, and that God had said his son should be king only over part of Canaan? What God had said came true. Jeroboam took away a great deal of the land from Solomon's son. Jeroboam was called the king of Israel; and Solomon's son was called king of Judah. Now Solomon's son lived in Jerusalem, but Jeroboam lived in the other part of the land.*

I have told you about some of the kings of Israel, about Ahab and Ahaziah; but there were a great many more besides, and they were all wicked, so that God let the king of Assyria come at last and take the king and the people of Israel into Assyria, which was a country a great way off.

I have not told you about the kings of Judah. When Solomon's son died, his son was king of Judah, and when he died his son was king-and so there were a great many kings one after another: some of the kings of Judah were good, and some were wicked. At last there was a good king called He-ze-ki-ah. He lived at Jerusalem, and he liked to wor

The child should be referred to the map, where the two kingdoms may be seen.