The despised sect; His gracious words to the Samaritan village -to the Samaritan woman-to the Samaritan leper-concerning the Samaritan traveller-we read a continuation of the same lesson which is suggested by the whole course of the history which we have been studying. This kindly feeling towards Ephraim, Gerizim, Samaria, is the Biblical sanction of the truth impressed upon us by all sound ecclesiastical history, that the grace of God overflows the boundaries within which we should naturally suppose that it would be confined. The kingdom of Judah had, as we shall see, the sanctuary and the sacred ritual. The Jews knew what they worshipped;' and in the fullest sense the salvation' of the nation came from them. But this did not prevent the growth of the series of Prophets within the kingdom of Samaria, and throughout their teaching there is hardly a word to show that they laid any stress on the duty of conforming to the ritual of Judah. There is, indeed, a modern tradition that the travellers described by Hosea were pilgrims to Jerusalem. But of this there is no trace in the original text. The moral evils, the sensual idolatries of Samaria, are attacked with no sparing hand, but hardly ever the sin of outward separation. Both kingdoms are impartially denounced; neither is by deliberate comparison placed above the other. The soil of the kingdom of Israel was as precious to distant pilgrims as the soil of Judæa.3 The capital of Omri was saved by as direct an intervention of Providence, as ever rescued the capital of David. In the life of Elijah a later Jewish tra Dr. Pusey on Hosea, p. 42. The only exception is 2 Kings iii. 14, where Elisha refuses to speak to Jehoram, except for the sake of Jehoshaphat. Hos. xi. 12 has been alleged as an example to the contrary. But the LXX., the context, and the general rendering of Hebrew scholars confirm the translation which renders it to be not Judah ruleth dition maintains that the rebuke which he addressed to Ahab was the first verse of the 76th Psalm: In Judah is 'God known.' But this, though it is what much of modern Judaism and of modern Christianity would require from him, is not the record of the ancient Scriptures. His rebuke to Ahab, as we have seen, was grounded on a far deeper basis. The question of the schism of Judah and Israel was one which he never for a moment stirred. The position of this greatest of the Prophets, living entirely apart from the authorised sanctuary of Judah, has been described with a thrilling sympathy in a remarkable sermon, preached more than twenty years ago by one who was struggling, with all the energy of a large and generous heart, to keep his balance in what he believed to be a schismatical and almost heretical Church. Elijah made no effort to set right what had gone so wrong; he paid no honour to the regular service of the Mosaic ritual; he never went on the yearly pilgrimage: in the one instance in which he is found in the kingdom of Judah, he passed by Jerusalem, be went on to Beersheba'he passed on along a forlorn and barren way into that 'old desert where the children of Israel had wandered to 'Horeb the mount of God.' His mission and that of his successor was to make the best of what they found, 'not to 'bring back a rule of religion that had passed away,' but to dwell on the Moral Law, which could be fulfilled everywhere; not on the Ceremonial Law, which circumstances seemed to have put out of their reach: not sending the Shunammite 'to Jerusalem, nor eager for a proselyte in Naaman, yet 'making the heathen fear the name of God, and proving to 'them that there was a Prophet in Israel.'' When our hearts glow with admiration for the splendid character of Elijah, or in sympathy with the tenderness of Hosea, we are but responding to the call of Him who bids us 2 Newman's Sermons, viii. 415. 1 Life of Dr. Wolff, i. 222. do justice and mercy even to those to whom, on theological or ecclesiastical grounds, we are most opposed; and recognise that the goodness which we approve was found, not in the Priest or the Levite, but in the heretical, schismatical, Samaritan. The history of Judah will have other and equally important lessons to teach us; but the history of Samaria, the very names of Samaria and Samaritan, carry with them the savour of this great Evangelical doctrine. The Prophets of Judah looked forward to a blessed time when Ephraim should not envy Judah, and Judah should not vex Ephraim. The Prophets of Israel, and He who, like them, dwelt not in Judæa but in Galilee, whence no "good thing could come,' and in Samaria, with which the 'Jews had no dealings,' were incontestable witnesses that such a hope was not impossible. THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH. XXXV. THE FIRST KINGS OF JUDAH. XXXVI. THE JEWISH PRIESTHOOD. XXXVII. THE AGE OF UZZIAH. XXXVIII. HEZEKIAH AND ISAIAH. XXXIX. MANASSEH AND JOSIAH. XL. JEREMIAH AND EZEKIEL:- THE FALL SPECIAL AUTHORITIES FOR THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH. I. Original authorities lost: 1. The Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel' (2 Chr. xxv. 26, xxxii. 32), or of Israel and Judah' (ibid. xxvii. 7, xxxv. 27, xxxvi. 8), or the Book (Words' or 'Acts') of Israel' (xxxiii. 18), from Amaziah to Jehoiachin. 2. The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah'; in the case of Rehoboam (1 Kings xiv. 29), Abijam (ibid. xv. 7), Asa (xv. 23), Joram (2 Kings viii. 23), Joash (xii. 19), Azariah (xv. 6), Jotham (xv. 36), Ahaz (xvi. 19), Hezekiah (xx. 20), Manasseh (xxi. 17), Amon (xxi. 25), Josiah (xxiii. 28), Jehoiakim (xxiv. 5). 3. The 'Book ('Words') of Shemaiah' (2 Chr. xii. 15). 4. The Visions of Iddo the Seer against Jeroboam' (2 Chr. ix. 29); and the 'Book (Words') of Iddo the Seer concerning Genealogies' (2 Chr. xii. 15). 5. The Book (Words ') of Jehu, son of Hanani' (2 Chr. xx. 34). 6 6. The Rest of the Acts (Words) of Uzziah, first and last,' by Isaiah (2 Chr. xxvi. 22); the Vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, containing the Rest of the Acts (Words) of Hezekiah' (2 Chr. xxxii. 32). Of this it is probable that Isa. xxxvi.— xxxix. forms a part. 7. The Sayings (Words) of Hozai' (2 Chr. xxxiii. 19). II. The extant Historical Books : 1. The Prophetical Book of the Kings,' completed at the time of the Captivity (2 Kings xxv. 27–30). 2. The Chronicles The Words of the Days,' the last in the Canon one book, divided by LXX. into two books, under the name of Paralipomena, Ómitted Parts.' Compiled from various sources, of which the latest appears to be of the time of Alexander the Great (1 Chr. iii. 21-24). III. Illustrations from contemporary Prophets: Joel; Hosea; Amos; Micah; Isaiah i.-xxxvi.; Zephaniah; Zechariah xii.—xiv.; Habakkuk; Obadiah; Jeremiah; Ezekiel; Isaiah xl.—lxvi. IV. Illustrations from the Psalms. V. Illustrations from Assyrian and Egyptian Monuments. VI. Jewish Traditions (1) in Josephus, Ant. viii. 10-x. 8; (2) in the Quaestiones Hebraica, attributed to Jerome; (3) in Fabricius, Codex Pseudepigraphus Vet. Test. VII. Heathen Traditions in Herodotus, ii. 141, 159. |