THE ANGEL SLAYETH THE ASSYRIANS.

WHEN the Assyrian army was before Lachish, Sennacherib sent a peremptory message to Hezekiah king of Judah, commanding the surrender of Jerusalem. The unhappy king, terrified at the demand, rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, then went into the Temple to humble himself before God, and despatched a message to Isaiah, informing him of the whole proceeding. The prophet sent an answer to the terrified king, advising him to treat with contempt the menaces of the tyrant, and commit himself to the protection of God, who would not suffer the heathen to prevail against Jerusalem. Just at this time news was brought to the Assyrian monarch that some part of his dominions were invaded by the king of Ethiopia, but before he raised the siege of Libnah, then invested by his troops, he sent another message to Hezekiah, if possible, more peremptory and insulting than before. This was delivered in a letter, which Hezekiah had no sooner read, than he went into the Temple and spread it before the Lord, imploring deliverance from the enemy. Meanwhile the Assyrian general having engaged and routed the Ethiopian army, marched towards Jerusalem, fully bent upon accomplishing its destruction. Flushed with his late victory, he had determined, not only to destroy all the inhabitants of the holy city, but to raze it to the ground. Hezekiah's terrors were now excited to the utmost pitch of distress, when he received assurance from Isaiah that God would not permit the capital of Judah, which he had taken under his protection, to be destroyed, but that the heathen, notwithstanding his vaunts, would be foiled in his undertaking. On the very night after this declaration of the prophet, while the army of the enemy was hushed in sleep," the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred four-score and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses *."

JEHOIAKIM AND THE PEOPLE OF IS

RAEL LED INTO CAPTIVITY.

JEHOIAKIM ascended the throne of Jerusalem in the six hundred and tenth year before Christ, but continuing to follow the vicious course of his predecessor, he drew down upon himself the indignation of heaven, and was visited with a signal chastisement. Within a few years after his accession to the throne, having grievously oppressed the people with taxes to satisfy the avaricious demands of Pharaoh king of Egypt, who had placed him upon the throne, Nebuchadnezzar with a large army approached Jerusalem, to which he laid siege. Jehoiakim, who was a dastardly and weak prince, was so terrified at the approach of the Babylonish army, that he went out to meet the invader, accompanied by his mother and all the chief persons of his kingdom; and supplicating the clemency of Nebuchadnezzar, resigned his crown, and submitted to the degraded condition of a captive. He was immediately put in chains and sent to Babylon with his family, and a vast number of captives. This happened in the eighth year of his reign. Nebuchadnezzar not only made the king of Jerusalem and his people captive, but "he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon, king of Israel, had made in the temple of the Lord, as the Lord had said. And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths; none remained save the poorest sort of the people of the land."* In the accompanying illustration, the immense host of the Jews are seen on their march as captives towards Babylon, which appears in the distance, its mighty walls laved by the river Euphrates, flowing in tranquil majesty beneath them. In the foreground are the waggons loaded with the rich spoils of the temple. On the left, behind the captives, appears the rear guard of the Babylonish army.