of them into Assyria, and replaced them
with men from Babylon and other places. By the intermarriage of Jews
remaining in the country with these foreigners a mixed race, called
Samaritans, sprang up.

The southern section of the country, known as the kingdom of Judah, was
ruled over by nineteen kings and one queen for a period of about three
hundred and seventy-five years. Asa, one of the good kings, was a
religious reformer--even "his mother he removed from being queen,
because she had made an abominable image for an Asherah; and Asa cut
down her image and burnt it at the brook Kidron." But he, like many
other reformers, failed to make his work thorough, for "the high places
were not taken away: nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect with
Jehovah all his days." Joash caused a chest to be placed "at the gate of
the house of Jehovah," into which the people put "the tax that Moses,
the servant of God, laid upon Israel in the wilderness," until they
had gathered an abundance of money, with which the house of God was
repaired, for the wicked sons of Athaliah had broken it up and bestowed
the dedicated things upon the Baalim. But after the death of Jehoida,
the priest, Joash was himself led into idolatry, and when Zechariah, the
son of Jehoida, rebuked the people for turning from God, they stoned him
to death by the order of King Joash. The last words of the dying
martyr were: "The Lord look upon it and require it." This is strangely
different from the last expression of Stephen, who "kneeled down, and
cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."
Amaziah returned "from the slaughter of the Edomites," and set up the
gods of the idolatrous enemies he had whipped, "to be his gods." Ahaz
was a wicked idolater, worshiping Baal and sacrificing his own sons.

In strong contrast with such men as these we have the name of
Hezekiah, whose prosperous reign was a grand period of reformation and
improvement. He was twenty-five years old when he came on the throne,
and in the twenty-nine years he ruled, "he removed the high places, and
brake the pillars, and cut down the Asherah." The brazen serpent,
made by Moses in the wilderness, had become an object of worship, but
Hezekiah called it "a piece of brass," and broke it in pieces. The
passover had not been kept "in great numbers in such sort as it is
written," so Hezekiah sent messengers from city to city to call the
people to observe the passover. Some "laughed t