o be indebted to Ewald for all that is striking
and original in their histories,--so true is Solomon's saying that there
is nothing new under the sun. The rarest thing in literature is a truly
original history.

In this mournful crisis the prophet Joel, who was a priest at Jerusalem,
demanded a solemn fast, which the entire kingdom devoutly celebrated,
the whole body of the priests crying aloud before the gates of the
Temple, "Spare Thy people, O Lord! give not Thine heritage to reproach,
lest the heathen make us a by-word, and ask, Where is now thy God?" But
Joel, the oldest, and in many respects the most eloquent, Hebrew prophet
whose utterances have come down to us, did not speak in vain, and a
great religious revival followed, attended naturally by renewed
prosperity,--for among the Jews a "revival of religion" meant a
practical return from vice to virtue, personal holiness, and the just
and wholesome requirements of their law; so that "under Amaziah, Uzziah,
and Jotham, Judah rose once more to a pitch of honor and glory which
almost recalled the golden age of David."

A greater power than that of Syria threatened the peace and welfare of
the kingdom of Judah, as it also did that of Israel; and this was the
empire of Assyria. During the reigns of David and Solomon this empire
was passing through so many disasters that it was not regarded as
dangerous, and both of the Jewish kingdoms were left free to avail
themselves of every facility afforded for national development. Ewald
notices emphatically this outward prosperity, which introduced luxury
and pride throughout the kingdom. It was the golden age of merchants,
usurers, and money-mongers. Then appeared that extraordinary greed for
riches which never afterward left the nation, even in seasons of
calamity, and which is the most striking peculiarity of the modern
Hebrew. This was a period not only of prosperity and luxury, but of
vanity and ostentation, especially among women. The insidious influences
of wealth more than balanced the good effected by a long succession of
virtuous and gifted princes. I read of no country that, on the whole,
was ever favored by a more remarkable constellation of absolute kings
than that of Judah. Most of them had long reigns, took prophets and wise
men for their counsellors, developed the resources of their kingdoms,
strengthened Jerusalem, avoided entangling wars, and enjoyed the love
and veneration of the people. Most of them, unlike