The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-31
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Copyright, Davis W. Clark.) S&NI@&@&@&

Save for my daily range
 Among the pleasant fields of Holy | Writ,
 | l might despair. -Tennyson.
 Third Quarter. Lessen V. Kings xvi 23-33.. July 31, 1904.
 Omri and Ahab.
 | The throne of the Northern Kingdom | was the shuttlecock of ambition Tor half a century. Seven kings had 1t and | four of them got 1t by violence and
 murder. Reigns were brief and dy- nasties interrupted. The exodus of the Levites deprived the nation of a sa- | line element. Civil war broke out. til the king set the torch to his own palace and Tirzah, that synonym Of
 beauty. lay in ashes.
 The history of the Southern King dom presents marked contrast. AL
 most the entire period is covered by the reign of a single monarch. Asa, one of the noblest men who ever wore crown No such black succession main-
 tained as did in Israel. One need not go far to find the cause of the opposite fortunes of Israel and Judah. The former drifted further and faster from that national rectitude which alone brings national peace and joy.
 It has been aptly said that every age thinks itself a crisis, but no one can doubt but that the advent of Ahab brought supreme issue in the history of Israel. The chronicler feels justi- fled in giving all the balance of his book to the narration of these dark and stirring scenes. Ahab's name means Fathers brother" the sugges- tion being that Ahab is Cnris other self, In impiety.
 Just at this juncture, Jezebel. a fe- male Judas Iscariot, cast her black shadow on Hebrew history. She Is an- other Irene of Constantinople. or Catharine de Medicis of France, or Shakespearian Lady Macbeth. She is the inventor of priestly inquisition and first supporter of religious persecution She was masterful, indomitable, and implacable. Her father had killed his brother in order to get the Zfdonian throne. Such was the fierce and fanat- ical blood that flowed in her veins
 It was an evil day for both Israel and Judah when Ahab took the wo- man to be his wife. The pains and penalties of that choice perpetuated themselves for thousand years. It was under her malign influence that positive idolatry was established. Calf worship. had, it is true, been previous ly established and was unauthorized and corrupt. The calf was, however. everywhere recognized as symbol of Jehovah, and under this reign he was still worshiped. But with the advent of Jezebel, the Baals suppIanted Je- hovah A great Baalite temple was built in Samaria with the evident pur- pose of surpassing that of Jehovah in Jerusalem. Eight hundred priests in gorgious regalia served at the altars. | The pomp of a sensuous cult was sub stituted for the simple and speaking rites of an elevated theistic religion. | The essence of the faith of Israel found | Its expression in the simple creed "Je- | hovah. Israefs God; Israel, Jehovah's | people" But in place of the revered | name of Jehovah it was deliberately | proposed to substitute the name of the | Baals. It was a blow at monotheism. | In the place of the one God were to | be substituted gods many." namely, |