depravity, as He waves are approaching him," So far ehalt thou come, and no further." Because the father has been bad, there is no just reason why the child should be bad also. Because all the generations that have gone have been bad, there is no reason why this generation should bo wicked, We are not like logs of wood on the surging seas of past wickedness, but rather like those snowy birds that can at pleasure mount from the billows, and quit them for the wide fields of air. III. Ae A TERRIBLE VICTIM OF waoNG. Wbat was the ;"oouial, outcome of all this wickedness? Retribution stem, rigorous, and crushing. "Then the King of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years." "Thie was the third and final expedition of Shalmaueser against the whole of Syria, and it seems to have been after the lapse of a year or two from his second expedition, What new offence had excited his wrath has not been recorded; but as a determined resistance was made by his refractory vassal, Shalmaneser prepared for a regular siege of Sa.maria, which, through the stubborn valour of the Israelites themselves, or with the aid of Egyptian troops, lasted for nearly three years. At length the city capitulated; or, if Josephus is correct, was ta.ken by storm. But the glory of this conquest was not enjoyed by Shalmaneser, who had been suddenly recalled by the outbreak of a domestic re1•olntion occasioned, or at least encouraged, by his pro- tracted absences from his capital. He was dethroned by the insurrection of an ambitious subject, and he seems to have died also before the fall of Samaria" (Dr. Ja.meson). Thus the whole of the inhabitants, one and all, were carried away by tyra.nnic force. "From inscriptions in the palace at Khorasbad," says a modern expositor, "which record the number of Israelitish captives, it appears that 27,280 were transported into Assyria. from Samaria. and other parts of the kingdom of Israel. The removal of entire popu- lations from vanquished countries to some other portion of the conqueror's dominions had not been adopted, so far as reliable history testifies, as the policy of any ancient sovereigns in the East until it was introduced and acted upon by the later Assyrian kings. Soldiers when taken captive in battle, women and children belonging to the conquered enemy, it had, indeed, for ages been the custom to carry into the land of the victor, And even numerous tribes of foreigners, resident within the territory, and reduced to a state of bondage, like the Israelites in Egypt, had frequently, by the arbi- trary will of ancient kings, been dragged to different quarters of their kingdom to labour on the public works." Here is the temporal retribution, at any rate, of two hundred years of idolatry and wickedness. During this period Israel had sinned away its liberty, its property, its country, 'l'he ten tribes sinned themselves into slavery, destitution, and everlasting obscurity. For where are they? Two thou.sand years have rolled away sir.ce this terrible catastrophe, and none can tell us who they are or where they are. "Be sure your sins will find you out." Retribution may move silently and slowly, but ever with a resistless step. It follows the sins of a nativn as well as of an individual, It was the crimes of the Israelites that ruined the kingdom, and made them the victims of this terrible catastrophe. So it ever is; the great dynasties and kingdoms of the past have met with the same fate by the same inexor- able law of retribution. 'l'hPre are sins in our England that are working towards its ruin. The sins of a nation work, like the subterranean fires, underground. The nation may have arts lovely as the landscape, institutions apparently grand and firm as the old mountains. But whilst the people revel in their exuberance of resources, their natural beauties, and in the grandeur of their institutions, and that for ages, sin, like an oce81l of fire underground, will one day break out in flames, that will destroy the whole, as in the case of the ten tribes.-D. 'l'.
Vers. 9-23.-A great privilege, wickedness, and ruin. "For so it was," etc. We have used the first verses of this chapter, in our last sketch, to set forth the aspects of a corrupt nation. '!'he Israelitish people appear in tbat fragment of their history a:J an unfortunate inheritor of wrong, a guilty worker of wrong, and a terrible victim of wrong. 'l'hese fifteen verses now under our notice present to us three subjects of thought-a great national privilege; n great national wickedness; and a great national ruin. I. A GREAT NATIONAL PRIVILEGE, \Ve learn herefrom that the Infinite Governor of the world had given them at least three great advantages-politic.al freedom, right to the THE SECOND BOOK OF 'l'IIE KINGS. [oJi. XVII, 1--41,