Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish

women cause to sin.

Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives?

And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son in law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me.

Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites.

Thus cleansed I them from all strangers, and appointed the wards of the priests and the Levites, every one in his business;

And for the wood offering, at times appointed, and for the first-fruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.

COMMENT.-Here is a reform of Nehemiah's which came later, and had consequences stretching far beyond his time.

Jehoiada succeeded his father Eliashib as high priest. His son Manasseh had married a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite. It is likely that on the death of his master Artaxerxes, Nehemiah was able to take up his abode entirely at Jerusalem, and on coming there he found that many of these mixed marriages had taken place, and that there was a race of children growing up who spoke the Philistine tongue, or only the broken Hebrew or Aramaic, which now stood for Hebrew.

Nehemiah cast out from the priesthood all who would not renounce these dangerous connections. Thereupon Manasseh fled to his father-in-law Sanballat, at Samaria, and together they repaired to the new king of Persia, Darius Nothus, and obtained from him leave to build a rival temple on Mount Gerizim. Here it was that Joshua had set up the Ten Commandments in plaster; here the blessings and cursings had been proclaimed; here lay Shechem, the inheritance of Joseph, and the burial-place of himself and his brothers; and the Samaritans easily learnt to forget that they were a nation of Arabs planted by Esarhaddon, and imagined themselves the true sons of Ephraim. They had the Law of Moses, but would accept no further books, because Ezra had put them in order, and under Manasseh's superintendence a sort of imitation of the worship at Jerusalem was carried on at the Temple on Mount Gerizim, while the utmost contempt and hatred reigned between the Jews and Samaritans.

The district, once called Cabul and afterwards Galilee, in the hills round the Sea of Gennesareth was peopled by genuine descendants of Zebulon and Napthtali, who held with the Jews, and when they came on the three yearly pilgrimages, the Samaritans would beset them and try to cut them off.

Moreover, it was the custom of the Jews to light a beacon fire to show when the Passover began to be celebrated at Jerusalem. It was repeated from hill to hill, even across the desert, and served to inform their scattered brethren at Babylon and in Egypt when to begin their feast. But the Samaritans delighted to kindle fires in mockery to deceive the watchers, and this raised the strongest feelings of hatred among the Jews.

No Samaritan could be admitted as a proselyte, the whole race were publicly cursed in the synagogues, and many years later one of the wisest of the Jews ends his beautiful book of proverbial sayings with, "There be two manner of nations which my heart abhorreth, and the third is no nation; they that sit on the mountain of Samaria; they that dwell among the Philistines; and that foolish people that dwell in Sichem." (Ecclus. 1. 25, 26.)

So easy is it to run into wrong extremes. The wise and needful separation which Nehemiah carried out led to what he never intended-violent national hatred; and whereas the Jews of old had been too easy in running into intercourse with the ungodly, they now not only held aloof, but forgot all rules of mercy and charity. Nehemiah is believed to have died at Jerusalem at about seventy years old.

LESSON XXIII.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

DAN. viii. 5, 6, 7, 21; xi. 3. ZECH. ix. 3—8.

B.C. 332.—The passages chosen for the present reading are not narrative, but prophecy revealed to Daniel and Zechariah two hundred and a hundred and fifty years before the event. But God had so clearly made His will known to His servants, that the actual story of the events reads like the comment on the prophecies.

Daniel saith :

And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power.

And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horus: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him : and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.

And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.

And Zechariah saith :—

And Tyrus did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets.

Behold, the LORD will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire.

Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza also shall see it, and be very sorrowful, and Ekron; for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.

And a stranger shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.

And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth: but he that remaineth, even he, shall be for our God, and he shall be as a governor in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite.

And I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now I have seen with mine eyes.

COMMENT.-Little is known of the Jews after the close of Nehemiah's history, except that for the next eighty years they were faithful to the Great King. But the great Persian Empire was near its fall. Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream the shoulders of silver change to the thighs of brass; and Daniel's first vision showed him the bear overcome by the leopard.

Another vision showed him a rough goat coming from the west. Now in Greece there had risen up the kingdom of Macedon, and in this kingdom, whose ensign was the he-goat, there grew to manhood one of the most wonderful men who ever lived, both in war and peace, namely, Alexander the Great.

Setting forth while still in early youth, he met and defeated the Persian army in two great battles, from the second of which the king, Darius Codomanus, fled, leaving behind him much of his treasure in Damascus, which was soon taken. When we think of the wonderful swiftness of his conquest, no description, save that of the goat rushing as if he never touched the earth, and smiting the ram, can apply to it. But Zechariah carries on the description of his progress in Palestine.

He began with the cities on the coast. Tyre, after the ruin by Nebuchadnezzar, had been rebuilt on an island, a stronghold in the sea, and hoped to be able to resist him; but he built a causeway to the isle from the mainland, with the ruins of the old town, and after seven months took the city and cruelly punished the inhabitants for their long resistance. He had called upon the Jews to supply his army with provisions during the siege, but Jaddua or Jehoiada the high priest refused, saying that this would be contrary to his oath to the Great King. As soon, therefore, as Tyre was taken, Alexander prepared to march to Jerusalem, to punish the Jews as severely as the Phoenicians. Great was the terror of the Jews, but in a vision Jaddua was warned of God how to meet the danger. Accordingly, on the day when the terrible conqueror was expected, he arrayed himself in his glorious priestly vestments, mitre, ephod, and pomegranate bordered robe, with the jewelled breastplate, and followed by the other priests in their proper garments, and the people clad in white, he went forth to meet the invaders. To the amazement of all, as they met, Alexander sprang from his horse and bowed lowly before the high priest, as it were to the words, "HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD," on the gold plate on the mitre. He was led into Jerusalem, worshipped in the Temple outer court, and was shown the prophecies of his coming. He treated the Jews with much kindness, and promised to remit to them the tribute every seventh year, when they had to leave the land fallow. He told his friends that he had not bowed to Jaddua, but to the God whose minister he was, for that at home, when planning this expedition, a Being in the very same robes had appeared to him at night, and had foretold all his conquests. Thus did God encamp about His House, and save His people from the oppressor.

The Philistine cities mentioned by Zechariah, fared as he had

foretold. Gaza, under a Persian governor, held out against him for two months with great bravery, but was treated with unusual severity: no less than 10,000 men, with their families, being sold into slavery. The other cities, Ekron, Ashdod, and Ashkelon, were also ravaged, and “the pride of the Philistine” was broken, so that he never more appears as a name in history.

Here are three verses more from Daniel :

After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.

Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.

And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled : for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.

After his stay at Jerusalem, Alexander advanced to Babylon and set up the seat of his empire there. He endeavoured to repair the temple of Belus, which had fallen into decay under the fire-worshipping Persians, but when the Jews at Babylon besought that they might not be forced to work at an idol temple, he granted their entreaty.

He afterwards pursued Darius into the uttermost parts of Persia, where the unfortunate king was murdered by his followers, and he proceeded to the borders of India. The great point in all his doings was that he was not only a conqueror but a founder. Wherever he went he founded a city, generally called after himself, where he placed a Greek colony, with Greek habits, schools, and The most noted of all these cities was Alexandria in Egypt, at the mouth of the Nile, a great sea-port where he placed

manners.