the King of Assyria would speedily take away captives from all the nations of that region, stripped of their possessions and shivering for lack of clothing. In this way, help the pupils to a realization of Isaiah's splendid vigor and earnestness.

In connection with question 1, bring out that Amos seems to have been led to his prophetic work, as a result of long-continued quiet meditations, while he watched over his flock. Hosea's call came through a bitter personal grief. Isaiah's came suddenly while he was at Church, or what was "Church" in those days. Yet there were certain elements common to all three. Supposing their fellow-countrymen had asked them, as Paul was asked centuries later: "What is your authority for coming before us in this way? By what right do you take us to task? Show us your commission from the priests. Tell us who sent you on this errand." What would they have answered? Then there is another characteristic common to the three. Were they hermits and recluses, or were they in close touch with their fellow-men, and with current events? Did this knowledge play any part in leading them to be prophets? Does this throw any light on the way God spoke to them, and called them to the prophetic work? Bring out that Isaiah's early life made him familiar with the problems of statesmanship and foreign policy. So God called him to his special work through his knowledge of the need, and through his own special fitness to meet that need.

Questions 2 to 5 deal with the heart of the lesson. See that the pupils are familiar with the facts of Isaiah's foreign policy, then discuss it. Is it true that faith and obedience to God will invariably bring material prosperity to individuals or nations? Will they bring anything better than material prosperity? Will they have any effect on material and physical well-being? Just how Isaiah would have answered all these questions we cannot know with certainty. They were not raised among the Hebrews until a later date. But a study of his own life answers them with the utmost clearness. He himself was persecuted; he certainly was not always prosperous and fortunate, in a material sense. Yet did not his faith produce a notable result in his life? Apply this to the question of faith and physical health. Can we be healed of disease through prayer? Suppose one should take a deadly poison? Can prayer save his life? On the other hand, is it not true that faith promotes health? Apply this principle also to the question of efficiency in one's

work; of one's general usefulness to one's fellow-men, especially in times of danger and crisis. How does faith help in times of temptation to moral wrong?

The following story from Frank Smith, the humorous Ohio evangelist, contrasts the right with the wrong conception of faith. "I had been working hard, and at the close of the day, I kneeled down to pray to God for refreshing sleep and strength to continue the work of the morrow. As I prayed, I thought I saw a vision of all that I had eaten for supper. There was Welsh rabbit, plum pudding, and three cups of coffee, etc.; then I thought I heard a voice which said, 'Well, Frank, I will do the best I can for you under the circumstances.""

Question 5 applies the principle of faith to a modern example of Isaiah's special field, namely, international politics. Every one admits that battleships and armaments are an almost intolerable burden; but it is generally believed that it would not be safe for a single nation to disarm, and rely for safety on the public opinion of the world, and the conscience of mankind. Do the following passages bear on this question? Isa. 30: 1-3; 15-16; 31: 1-3.

INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS.

Isaiah the Prophet.

"While Amos and Hosea were executing in the northern kingdom the mission with which God had entrusted them, a youth was approaching manhood in the city of Jerusalem who was rarely qualified in personal endowment and by favoring conditions to enter upon a similar work in Judah, and to carry it to a higher stage of development. The peer of these men of God in loyalty, devotion and courage, he was so situated that a much wider sphere of service was open to him. If not related to the royal family, he was at least of gentle blood, and entitled by general consent to a place of dignity and influence at the court and among the people. During his whole career he played the part of a leader in political as well as religious and social affairs. As a loyal citizen of Jerusalem, he was peculiarly fitted to perceive and express the important relation of the holy city to the plan of God, unfolding for the nation. That his natural abilities were of no ordinary character is proved by the dignity, vigor, and beauty which characterize all his utterances. It is entirely probable, however, that he availed himself of all the educational resources of a brilliant era.

"His boyhood was during a happy period of Judah's history, when the energetic and enterprising Uzziah was on the throne of Judah. This king, enthroned when but a youth . . . made his little kingdom secure, powerful and prosperous, and gave his people renewed confidence in themselves and in their future. Judah, under King Uzziah, became a fair counterpart of Israel under King Jeroboam II, whose reign was practically contemporaneous. No wonder that the soul of the young Judean prophet was stirred by the sights of evils similar to those which had kindled the prophetic ardor of Amos - a thoughtless greed for wealth, a consequent abuse of power and opportunity, a forgetfulness of moral standards, all combined with a scrupulousness for religious forms and with a pretence of loyalty to Jehovah and that his study of the utterances of Amos and Hosea to the northern people prepared him for a prompt consecration of himself as God's spokesman to the people of Judah."-Sanders and Kent.

Isaiah as a Statesman.

"The nation was anxious about its own security. The permanence of the national life seemed to be imperiled; there was a feeling of interest in all questions which affected the defences of the nation. How can we maintain our national strength? That was the great question that was stirring the souls of the prophet's countrymen, and the question was being answered as thousands of people are answering it in our own country today. Look to your bulwarks, increase the strength of your fortifications, multiply your military forces, enter into alliance with the most powerful among the nations, and put your confidence in the strength of your arms and your armor. That was the predominant counsel of the day, and it all amounted to this that the strength and permanence of national life can be built upon a basis of material force. That was the popular conception as to what were the foundations of national stability, and so their policy was shaped in accordance with their views. Thus they strengthened their fortifications, they multiplied and consolidated their forces, and they entered into alliance first with one nation and then with another, and on this they built their fullest confidence and hope. Those were the conditions amid which the prophet worked and with which he had to deal. Against this conception of national security he lifted up his voice like the

sound of a trumpet. Oh! Israel, thy strength, thy stability, thy permanence lie not in things like these. Thy feverish efforts are misdirected, thou art building upon shifting sand, and thy national life will collapse. The armor will rust, and the arm of flesh will fail; the alliance with material forces is a covenant with death. Not in physical prowess, not in diplomatic shrewdness lies the strength of a nation. It rests in the character of its people. The most dangerous foes of a nation are not outside but within its borders. The foes of a nation which are most to be feared are of its own household. There lies your weakness, says the brave old prophet, and there will lie the secret of your strength. Riches and national permanence are embodied in the national life. Change the emphasis of your policy. You have been busy making alliances; now make a man."- J. H. Jowett.

The Destruction of Sennacherib's Host: Story Confirmed from Outside Sources.

"For details of this disaster we look in vain, of course, to the Assyrian annals, which only record Sennacherib's abrupt return to Nineveh. But it is remarkable that the histories of both of his chief rivals in this campaign, Judah and Egypt, should contain independent reminiscences of so sudden and miraculous a disaster to his host. From Egyptian sources there has come down through Herodotus, a story that a king of Egypt, being deserted by the military caste, when "Sennacherib King of the Arabs and Assyrians" invaded his country, entered his sanctuary and appealed with weeping to his god; that the god appeared and cheered him; that he raised an army of artisans and marched to meet Sennacherib in Pelusium; that by night a multitude of field mice ate up the quivers, bow-strings and shield-straps of the Assyrians; and that, as these fled on the morrow, very many of them. fell. A stone statue of the king, adds Herodotus, stood in the temple of Hephaestus, having a mouse in the hand. Now, since the mouse was a symbol of sudden destruction, and even of the plague, this story of Herodotus seems to be merely a picturesque form of a tradition that pestilence broke out in the Assyrian camp. The parallel with the Bible narrative is close. In both accounts it is a prayer of the king that prevails. In both the Deity sends His agent; in the grotesque Egyptian an army of mice, in the sublime Jewish, His angel. In both the effects

are sudden, happening in a single night. From the Assyrian side we have this corroboration: that Sennacherib did abruptly return to Nineveh without taking Jerusalem . . . and that he never again made a Syrian campaign."- Smith.

ADDITIONAL READING REFERENCES.

Kent, Kings and Prophets of Israel and Judah, chapters on Isaiah. Moore, Literature of the Old Testament, pp. 145-156. Fowler, History of the Literature of Ancient Israel, chapter on Isaiah. Bible Dictionaries, article on Isaiah. J. M. Powis Smith, The Prophet and his Problems.

CHAPTER XX.

A GREAT PROPHET AND HIS FAITHFUL
SECRETARY.

BARUCH'S RECORD OF JEREMIAH'S Life.

PURPOSE OF THE LESSON.

To show the value of team work. Jeremiah working with Baruch accomplished far more than the two of them could have accomplished, working separately; also, as a further development of the same principle, to show the value of spiritual fellowship and of Church membership.

TELLING THE LESSON STORY.

Have the pupils turn to the chronological chart at the end of the Quarterly. If Isaiah has not yet been inserted have them write his name vertically, the final letter reaching about 690. Now explain that in passing to chapter twenty-one, we jump over a period of sixty-five years (690-625 B.c.), the period between the death of Isaiah and the early work of Jeremiah. As for prophetical writings, these years seem to have been largely a blank. Indeed they were very discouraging years from the standpoint of moral and religious progress. (Proceed with the story somewhat as in the pupil's book.)

DISCUSSING THE LESSON.

There is an interesting parallel to be drawn, between a certain fact in geography and a similar fact in history. In what position and arrangement do we usually find mountains,