not till she reached a spot known as the "road or gate "of the horses," or "of the royal mules,"1 was the blow struck which ended her life. Then again took place one of the "covenants" or "pledges" of that age, -a league, as it were, between King and people, between the King and the true religion, as a consecration for a crusade against the false worship. As in Samaria under Jehu, six years before, so here in Judea, the Temple of Baal, with its altars and statues, was shattered to pieces by the popu lar fury. In front of the altars fell the Priest of Baal, Mattan. Guards were placed over the Temple, so as to prevent any rapine; and then in a long procession, formed of the officers, the guards, and the multitude who had taken part in the proceedings of the day, the boy was brought down from the Temple, by the causeway through which the guards usually preceded the King to and from the palace. He was brought into the palace, and seated on the golden throne within the "high gateway," "the throne of the "Judah.2" Kings of "And the city was in quiet," and so ended the troubled scenes of the first Sabbath of which any detailed account is preserved to us in the Sacred Records. The restoration of the house of David after such a narrow escape of total destruction was in itself a marked epoch in the Jewish nation; and much in the same way as in the like period of English history, when there was so strong an anxiety to secure an undoubted heir to the throne, so now it is emphatically recorded that Jehoiada lost no time in securing a succession to the throne of Judah 1 Joseph. Ant. ix. 7, § 4. 2 2 Kings xi. 19. Joash. "Jehoiada took for Joash two wives, and he begat sons "and daughters." But the peculiar circumstances of the restoration were also fraught with an interest of their own. The part played by Jehoiada raised the Priesthood to an importance which (with the single exception of Eli) it had never before attained in the history of the Jewish nation, and which it never afterwards altogether lost. Through the Priesthood the lineage of David had been saved, and the worship of Jehovah restored in Judah, even more successfully than it had been in Samaria through the Prophets. During the minority of Joash, Jehoiada virtually reigned. The very office was in some sense created by himself. The name of "High Priest," which had not been given to Aaron, or Eli, or Zadok, was given to him, and afterwards continued to his successors. He was regarded as a second founder of the order, so that in after-days he, rather than Aaron, is described as the chief.1 The first object was to restore the Temple itself. Its treasures had been given away piecemeal to invaders, even by the most devout of the Kings, and had been plundered twice over by the Egyptians and Arabs. Its very foundations had been injured by the agents of Athaliah in removing its stones for her own temple. To Joash, who alone of the Princes of the house of David had been actually brought up within the Temple walls, the reparation of its venerable Reforms of fabric was naturally the first object. From Joash. 1 2 Chr. xxiv. 3. is the doubtful one of Jehoiada the 2 Ibid. xxiii. 18, 19. This is omitted father of Benaiah, in 1 Chr. xxvii. 5 in 2 Kings xi. 3 2 Kings xii. 10. Down to this time the chief of the order had been "The Priest." The only exception ("the head Priest "). 4 Jer. xxix. 26. 3 him, as it would seem, and not from Jehoiada, the chief impulse proceeded. "Joash was minded to restore "the house of the Lord." "The repairing of the house "of the Lord" is mentioned as one of the great acts of his reign.1 And it is instructive to see that the elevation of the moral above the ceremonial law, which characterized the best traditions of the Jewish nation, made itself felt even in the King who might, most of all, have been thought a mere nursling and instrument of the sacerdotal caste. When, from some unexplained cause, the Priests had failed to appropriate the contribution to its proper purpose, the whole hierarchy, with Jehoiada 2 at their head, met with a mild yet decided rebuke from the King, and a measure was agreed upon, very similar to those which have taken place in modern times on the suspicion of maladministration of ecclesiastical property. The administration of the funds was removed from the hands of the delinquent order. All future contributions were deposited in a public chest, placed close to the great altar in the Temple court, and were audited, so to speak, not only by the High Priest, but by the royal secretary in the presence of public officers. The measure completely answered. Confidence was restored, contributions flowed in, the workmen could be implicitly trusted, and the repairs went on in this and the succeeding reigns at a rapid pace. Nothing was spent on mere ornaments - everything was devoted to the solid repair of the fabric. 1 2 Chr xxiv. 4, 27. 2 2 Kings xii. 7. In 2 Chr. xxiv. 5, 6, only Jehoiada and the Levites, not the Priests. in 2 Chr. xxiv. 8, and the chest is placed at the outer gate. 4 2 Kings xii. 10; 2 Chr. xxiv. 11. 52 Kings xii. 13. This is con 3 2 Kings xii. 9. This is omitted tradicted in 2 Chr. xxiii. 12, 13, 14, and probably by implication in 7. In spite of this unpleasant suspicion, there was no open rupture between the King and the Priestly order so long as his benefactor Jehoiada lived. Their joint rule, almost as of father and son, must have resembled the one parallel in the Christian Church, when Michael Romanoff as Czar, and his father Philaret as Patriarch of Moscow, ruled the church and state of Russia Jehoiada lived to a great old age, and on his death his services, as preserver of the royal dynasty and as restorer of the Temple worship, were esteemed so highly, that he received an honor allowed to no other subject in the Jewish monarchy. He was buried in state within the walls of Jerusalem,2 in the royal sepulchres. Death of Jehoiada. The reign of Joash, which had been lit up by so romantic a beginning, was darkened by a tragical end. Though only told in the Chronicles, it agrees so well with human nature, and with the circumstances of the case, that it deserves close consideration. On Jehoiada's death, the Jewish aristocracy, who perhaps had never been free from the licentious and idolatrous taint introduced by Rehoboam, and confirmed by Athaliah, and who may well have been galled by the new rise of the Priestly order, presented themselves before Joash, and offered him the same obsequious homage that had been paid by the young nobles to Rehoboam. He, irritated, it may be, by the ambiguous conduct of the Priests in ne affair of the restoration of the Temple, and feeling himself released from personal obligations by the death of his adopted father, threw himself into their hands. Athaliah was avenged almost on the spot where she had been first seized by her enemies. That 1 For the difficulties attending the age of Jehoiada, stated, in 2 Chr. xxiv. 15, to be 130, see Lord Arthur fierce blood which she had inherited from her parents ran in the veins of her grandson: Murder of Indocile à ton joug, fatigué de ta loi, Fidèle au sang d'Ahab qu'il a reçu de moi, So Athaliah is well conceived as predicting the future of Joash on the day of her first encounter with him. Once more the degrading worship of Baal and Astarte appeared in Judah. Against this apostasy Prophetic warnings were raised, now more common in Judah than a century before. One of these came from a quarter which, from the King at least, ought to have commanded respect. With Joash, when a child in the Temple, had been brought up the sons of Jehoiada. One of these, Zechariah, had succeeded his father in the office of High Priest. On him, as he stood high above the worshippers in the Temple, the Prophetic spirit descended; and he broke out into a vehement remonstrance Zechariah. against the desertion of the God of their fathers. At the command of the King, when he heard of this it may be, at his hasty words, like those of our Henry II. the nobles or the people rushed upon Zechariah, and with stones- probably from the Temple repairs stoned him to death. His last words were remembered," JEHOVAH, look upon it, and require it." it.” The spot where he fell was traditionally shown in the sacred space between the great porch of the Temple and the brazen altar. The act produced a profound impres sion. It was a later Jewish tradition, but one which 3 2 Chr. xxiv. 20 (LXX. Azariah) and see 1 Chr. vi. 11. 1 Racine, Athalie, Act V. Scene 6. 2 "Burdens were many," 2 Chr. XXV. 27. 4 Ibid. xxiv. 22; Matt. xxii. 35. |