The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-05
Fourth Quarter. Lesson VI. 2 Kings
 xi, I-I6. November 6, 10o4.
goAsH. THE poY KING

8OASHs IuE NOh
 It all came of a bad marriage. For reasons of State, the good king Jehos- haphat married.his son to the daughter of Jezebel. The chronicler speaks of Athaliah as ''that wicked woman. :" Her phenomenal fierceness was all the more conspicuous because it appeared in one whose very sex Is supposed to stand for gentleness. She was as un- scrupuious as she was ambitious. In opposition to all Hebrew law and pre- cedent she seated herself upon the throne of Judah and fortified herself in fpsr usurpation by cruelty murdering all possible claimants, among them her own grandchildren, thereby proving herself atrocious and unnatural. Never was royal blood so profusely shed. All kin to the crown were supposed to be out of the way. Thus, this Lady Mac beth of Jewish history began her course of tyranny and debauchery. Under her reign Baalism had it's in nings. so much so that a temple to the foul Sidonian god is known to have been built in Jerusalem. If not within the temple precincts. The temple was robbed of its furniture. if not of its very stones and timbers, to build the shrine to the rival of Jehovah. No wonder it was "a time of trouble, re- buke and blaspheming. Athaliah was wicked daughter of wicked mother. .. She was even more fierce, powerful and unsparing than Jezebel. q
 But there was one unsuspected flaw In the iron of her tyranny. In the slaughter of the innocents. one little intended victim was overlooked. Je- hosheba honored her sex as Athaliah disgraced it. What she did stands high among all the daring deeds of \ patriotism. By her loyalty and cour- age. she preserved the royal house of David from extinction. In the midst of the carnage, at the risk of her own life, she hurried the infant prince and his nurse into Unlicensed store-room of the temple. Her husband. the high priest, was a party to this merciful plot and from his commanding position was able to insure the success of it.
 For six years the little prince was hid in the secret of the tabernacle. The temple was place which Athaliah seldom troubled, and it Is easy at any rate for parts of great building to be overlooked. In this obscurity Joash lived, although all the while entitled to a crown. He was faithfully guard ed as the nations greatest treasure In his remarkable preservation the prophecy that David's lamp would nev- CT go out had fulfillment. But in this instance the lamp was perilously near G4lluCllOn-'
 Jehoiada is a star in the Hebrew pristhood. Paddock and Abiathar are the other exceptions to the rule of dullness. The. nature of the office Is not such as to bring its holder into prominence. In this instance Jehoiada could not prevent the general destruc- tion of the royal stock. The crime was so unnatural that it could not have 2 been suspected. What he did do was to bide his time and organize counter revolution. And this he did with a prudence, caution, and sagacity un- surpassed. The disinterested character of his patriotism did not admit of ques- tion. He aimed at nothing for himself. He averted civil war and achieved a bloodless revolution.
 The story Is told with pictorial pow CT. It makes one of the most vivid and dramatic pages of human history. The queen was allowed to weary and