though it is, will fire descend from heaven to consume the hosts of the ungodly (Rev. xx. 9). 2. The second captain. One example of this kind should have been enough. nut when men are inspired by fury and hate of God, above all, wh<rn it is not their own lives they are risking, they are not easily deterred. A.s if this first defeat but added fuel to the king's anger, the order goes forth for another band to be equipped, and sent to take the prophet. 'l'he captain who received the mandate had no choice but to obey, and military pride may have led him to suppress any outward show of misgiving. nut it must have been with no small quaking of heart that he set out on this now doubly perilous service. Still Elijah site on his hill, and, putting as bold a front on matters as he can, the swond captain, in the king's name, repeats the sumip.ons to come down. "0 man of God, thus bath the king said, Come down quickly." Elijah from his height retlll'ns the former answer; and once again the thunderbolt descends, and scatters the bodies of this second fifty at the hill's foot beside the first. 3. The third captain. Not even yet will the king own the folly of resistance. Like Pharaoh in conflict with Moses, each new calamity but seems to harden him the more. A. third captain is despatched with the same peremptory orders to seize the recalcitrant prophet. (1) But this captain is wiser than his predecessors. He does what few in his position could help doing-accepts a lesson from experience. He abandons the insolent tone of previous captains, and, falling on his knees before Elijah, sues for peace. " 0 man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight." He sees the folly of flinging away his life, and the lives of his men, to please a foolish king in a contest as wicked as it was vain. (2) This prayer robs his mission of its offensiveness, acknowledges God's supremacy, and shows that Elijah's life is in no danger. The angel of the Lord accordingly says to Elijah, "Go down with him: be not afraid of him." By this timely humbling of himself, the third captain (a) saved the lives of himself and his men; (b) obtained what the former captains could not obtain by their bullying, viz. that Elijah should go with him. No fire descended from heaven upon him, for God takes no pleasure in the wanton destruc- tion of human life. And not only was his lire spared, bnt he was saved from the king's anger, by Elijah consenting to accompany him. He was a living example of the truth, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble" (Jas. iv. 6). IV. 'l'HE wonn OF DOOM CONFIBMED. Brought, not as a prisoner, but as a conqueror, to A.haziah's bedchamber, Elijah repeated in person the terrible message he had formerly sent by the messengers. "Thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die." It is the word of doom, and as such Ahaziah cannot but hear it. This is all he has made of his futile attempts to fight against God-to hear that doom conlh·med by the very prophet whose head he had vowed to bring to the dust. The counsel of the Lord, it alone stands; the imagination of the sinner perishes. It is from Christ's own lips that those who now fight against him and despise his gospel will hear their final sentence.-J. 0. Vers. 17, 18.-Unwritten history. A.haziah died, and Jehoram his brother succeeded him. "The rest of his acts" were written" in the book of the chronicles of the Kings of Israel;" but Scripture has not preserved them. Why should it? What w,1s there in the records of that brief and evil existence to entitle the memory of it to live? "The memory of the just is blessed; but the name of the wicked shall rot" (Prov. x. 7). Enough is written to hold him up to after-ages as an example of the certainty of retribution. 'l'hen Scripture buries him with the epitaph, " So he died according to the word of the Lord which FJijah had spoken."-J. 0.
EXPOSI'l'ION. as his life had been. Ewald'e wmds, though CHAPTER II. not intended in an historico.l, but only in 11 Vere. 1-25.-TBE REMOVAL OF ELIJAH litorary sense, embody very foroibly what FROM EABTH, AND SOME EAnLY MIRACLES OF the humble beliover may accept ae the F.LlSRA, The greo.t prophet of Israel was actual rationale of the occurrence related \o) have a departure frorQ earth as 1I1arvelloue in vers. 1-12: "An eMthly ol\reer whiah II. KINGS. 0 18 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [arr. n. 1-25.