But though dead, he was yet to speak, and testify to the solemnity of the mission on which he had been sent. When he was found lying dead on the road, the lion also was standing there, as well as the ass on which he had ridden; the beast of prey had not eaten the corpse, nor torn the ass. Thus the mysterious circumstances of the prophet’s death confirmed that sign of his authority, which he had weakened during his life; and the old prophet of Bethel, by laying him in his own sepulchre with all honour, and charging his sons after his death to bury him beside the victim of his own deceit, preserved in Jeroboam’s new religious capital a silent witness against the idolatries there practised (1 K. xiii. 30–32). CHAPTER II. _REHOBOAM AND ABIJAH, JEROBOAM AND NADAB._ 1 KINGS XIII.–XV. 2 CHR. XI.–XIII. B.C. 975–955. THIS warning, however, though confirmed by signs and wonders, had little or no effect on Jeroboam himself. He persisted in his evil courses, and his dynasty was destined to pass away, a fact before long revealed to him under very mournful circumstances. His son ABIJAH fell sick. In his anxiety to know the fate of the hope of his kingdom, Jeroboam bade his wife disguise herself, and repair to Shiloh, and there consult the now blind and aged prophet, who had foretold his own elevation to the throne. Though she was effectually disguised, and presented only the gift of an ordinary person, a few loaves, some cakes, and a cruse of honey, the prophet detected his visitor as soon as he heard the sound of her feet at the door, and confirmed her worst fears. In words of utmost sternness he denounced her husband’s idolatries, and distinctly told her that her son would die. He, indeed, as one in whom _was found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel_, would descend into the grave mourned and lamented by the whole people. But no other of his family would thus receive an honourable funeral, and his death would be but the prelude of the destruction of his father’s dynasty. With a heavy heart the mother returned, and as she entered the town of Tirzah, Abijah sickened, and the blind prophet’s words came true (1 K. xiv. 1–18).