of the Judean sovereigns, in the order of their succes

Here are twenty-three rulers, of whom, as may be gathered from a comparison of the Jewish historical records, twelve were buried in the royal sepulchres; while the remaining eleven, indicated by an asterisk, were denied that honour, and were either interred in private tombs, in consequence of their wickedness, or they died in captivity far from their native land. Jehoram was buried in a private tomb; Athaliah came to a tragical end, and certainly was excluded from the resting-place of the royal race; of Joash it is expressly stated that he was not admitted to the sepulchres of his ancestors, because he had turned ungodly in his latter days; Uzziah, having been afflicted with leprosy, was buried by himself in his garden, according to Josephus; of Ahaz we read in 2 Chron. xxviii. 27, that he was not borne to the sepulchres of the kings of Israel; Manasseh was buried in the garden attached to his own house, as also was Amon, his wicked son; Jehoahaz died and was buried in Egypt; and the three remaining unfortunate Jewish princes met the same fate in Babylon.

Now, it is a-singular coincidence, at least, and one calculated to stimulate inquiry, that the number of vaults discovered in this magnificent funeral monument should exactly correspond with the number of the Jewish sovereigns. And more startling still is the

fact, that the state in which the several tombs are found agree strictly with the representations of sacred history. To account for the excavation of vaults in cases where the bodies were not deposited in them, it must be remembered that the Hebrew monarchs, like the kings of Egypt, were accustomed to prepare their sepulchres at the commencement of their respective reigns. M. de Saulcy offers the following explanatory remarks :

Fifteen personages ordered their tombs to be prepared in the royal vaults, and out of this number three were not deposited therein. In the Qbour-elMolouk exactly fifteen tombs have been prepared to receive so many sarcophagi. We have here a very strange coincidence, if it is the result of mere chance. The plans of only five tombs have remained merely marked out; and as all the places that could be disposed of, according to the extent of the large sepulchral chambers, have been brought into use, whether in a finished or an unfinished state, the inference would be that the two last kings, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, had no opportunity of selecting places for themselves. Of course it is clearly understood that Queen Athaliah is not to be taken into account, and that she must be entirely passed over, when we try to determine the order of inhumation of the kings in the Qbour-el-Molouk.

"The place of honour belongs to king David; consequently, it was certainly he who was buried in the small lower room containing only one sarcophagus, and situated precisely in the axis of the vestibule. (Marked 5 in the plan.) On the two stone shelves, ranged one above the other, were most probably placed the treasures, plundered at a later period by Hyrcanus and by Herod the Great.

"In the six tombs of the chamber nearest to David's body (marked 3) were buried-Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijam, Asa, and Jehoshaphat. The tomb of Jehoram

was also prepared, but this king's body was not deposited therein. This is most likely the one that does not contain any secret recess laid out to receive the treasures and precious objects that were usually buried in the tombs of kings."

In the next chamber (2) M. de Saulcy finds the places designed for Ahaziah, Jehoiada, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, and Jotham. The one left unfinished is, in his opinion, that from which the leper-king was excluded. It will be observed that some of the tombs are without recesses at their extremity, in which it is supposed the royal treasures were deposited. In these cases De Saulcy attempts, with great ingenuity, to show that the sovereigns there interred could not have been at their death possessed of sufficient wealth to enable them to bury it in their tombs.

Hezekiah, we are informed in Scripture, was interred with great pomp in a room apart. And, accordingly, De Saulcy assigns to him, with great propriety, the other lower chamber, marked 4. A special honour was thus conferred on him, by placing his tomb in the same exceptional position as that occupied by the tomb of David. The remaining chamber is examined with results and inferences equally satisfactory; after which the savant asks, whether it is possible that mere accident should have precisely mixed up these finished and unfinished tombs so as to agree exactly with the historical succession ? Without venturing to determine the truth or the falsity of this ingenious theory, we think it is one of such deep interest to every Bible reader as to be worthy of patient and candid study.

THE HEART'S GOLDEN KEY.-Christians can never want a praying time if they possess a praying frame. In the morning this is a golden key to open the heart for God's service, and in the evening it is an iron lock to guard the heart against sin,

THE PRINCE OF LYRIC SINGERS.

AMONG the greatest poets of the elder time, says an eloquent writer in "Blackwood's Magazine," there was David, the prince of lyric singers. This lyricist was a king, a statesman, a warrior, and a prophet : the leisure of his very youth was the leisure of occupation, when the flocks were feeding safe in the green pastures and by the quiet waters; and even then the dreaming poet-eye had need to be wary,

some

times flashing into sudden lightning at sight of the lion which the stripling slew. He sang out of the tumult and fulness of his heart-out of the labours, wars, and tempests of his most human and most troubled life; his business in this world was to live, and not to make poems. Yet what songs he made! They are Holy Writ, inspired and sacred; yet they are human songs, the lyrics of a struggling, kingly existence-the overflow of the grand primal human emotions to which every living heart resounds. His "heart moved him," his "soul was stirred within him" true poet-heart! true soul of inspiration! And not what other men might endure, glassed in the mirror of his now profound poetic spirit, a study of mankind; but of what himself was bearing there and at that moment, the royal singer made his outcry suddenly, and "in haste," to God. What cries of distress and agony are these! What bursts of hope amid the heart-break! What shouts and triumphs of great joy! For David did not live to sing; but sang because he strove and fought, rejoiced and suffered, in the very heart and heat of life.

Let us say a word of king David ere we go further Never crowned head had so many critics as this man has had in these two thousand years; and many a scorner takes occasion by his failings, and religious lips have often faltered to call him "the man after

God's own heart." Yet if we would but think of it, how touching is this name! Not the lofty and philosophic Paul, though his tranced eyes beheld the very heaven of heavens; not John, although the human love of the Lord yearned towards that vehement angel-enthusiast, whose very passion was for God's honour; but on the sinning, struggling, repenting David, who fights and falls, and rises only to fall and fight again-who never will be content to be still in his overthrow, and acknowledge himself vanquished-who bears about with him every day the traces of some downfall, yet every day is up again, struggling on as he can, now discouraged, now desperate, now exultant; who has a sore fighting life of it all his days, with enemies within and without; his hands full of wars, his soul of ardours, his life of temptations: upon this man fell the election of Heaven. And small must his knowledge be, of himself or of his race, who is not moved to the very soul to think upon God's choice of this David as the " man after his own heart." Heaven send us all as little content with our sins as had the king of Israel !

THE OFFICER'S DAUGHTER; OR, THE VICTIM OF TEMPTATION.

CHAPTER III.-THE LOST FOUND.

THE preceding chapter will have made known to the reader why, amongst all the sufferers who crowded the poorhouse, none had a heart burdened with a heavier grief than that which beat in the bosom of Nina Dalton. It might be thought that to such a one death would be welcome, since life had lost all that could make it endurable; yet in the unhappy girl was reversed the beautiful description of the poet--hating to live, she was yet " afraid to die;" if she shrank from beholding her father on earth, she yet more dreaded appearing before her Judge in heaven. The vague hope in God's infinite mercy which had sufficed to