Page:Light and truth.djvu/41

Rh thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.]

Sarepta was a city of Sidon. [Thus saith the Lord, I tell you of a truth, Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.]—(Luke iv. 25, 26.)

The Queen of the South, or Sheba, daughter of Jokshan, and grandaughter of Abraham by Keturah, (Gen. xxv 2, 3; 1 Kings, x. 2; Chron. ix; Matt. xii. 42; Acts viii. 27;) came from Ethiopia—or, in the language of Scripture, from the uttermost parts of the earth—to Jerusalem, with a very great company, to hear and see all the wisdom of Solomon. She desired to try him in allegories or parables, in which he had been instructed by Nathan. The annals of Abyssinia say that she was a pagan when she left Sheba or Azab, but being filled with admiration at the sight of Solomon's works, she became a proselyte to Judaism, while at Jerusalem. She likewise bore Solomon a son, whom she called Menilek, and carried him with her in her return to Sheba. After the lapse of a few years, Menilek was sent back to Solomon, for education; nor did his father neglect his charge, but had him thoroughly instructed in the Jewish religion. Menilek was crowned king of Ethiopia, in the temple at Jerusalem.

It is certain that circumcision, the observance of the seventh day, and a number of other Jewish rites, are practised by the Ethiopians to this very day; and it is indisputable that their kings are descended in a direct line from Solomon. It is probable that this powerful nation—the Ethiopians of Abyssinia—were conquered by Shishak, about the time of the civil wars in Egypt.

The celebrated Joash, the king of Israel, reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah, of Beer-sheba, or Sheba, a city or country of the Sabeans.—(Gen. x. 7; 2 Chron. xxiv.)