ciii. 17); "The children of thy servants shall continue, e.nd their seed shall be e11tab- liehed hefore thee n (Pe. cii. 28). II. BY THE SYMPATHY INVOLVED m GoD's FATBERHooo. After God all fatherhood (..a.-a ,ra-rpla) in heaven e.nd earth is named (Eph. iii. 15). As a Father, he sympa- thizes with all fathers, knows their hearts, understands their longings, is tender towards their tenderness, Them the.t love him he will love, and will reward them where they would most wish to be rewarded, in their children. The seed of the righteous mny often, does often, wander into devious ways, depart from righteousness, provoke God, draw down upon himself God's chastisements ; bat in the end how seldom does he wholly fe.11 away, completely forget the lessons of his youth, the example of godly parents, the precepts so carefully instilled into his mind in early life, day by day and year by year I how seldom does he become a blasphemer, or an unbeliever, or an utterly hardened reprobate I How often, on the other hand, does he recover from grievous falls, returns to God, repent, amend, and "do the first works" I God's tender care not only se.ves the children of the righteous from begging their bread, or falling into utter desti- tution, but watches over their spiritual welfare, and in a thousand ways checks their wanderings, weans them from their evil courses, and at last brings them to himself. Vere. 8-3i.-Godliness has, to a large ea;tent, the promise of this life, as wdl as of the life to come. The "good Bhunammite " and her husband are examples of the union, which is more co=on than men are apt to allow, between piety and prosperity. They have nothing heroic about them, nothing out of the common. They are substantial middle-class people, dwelling in a quiet country-side, farming on a moderate scale, with a comfortable house of their own, dwelling contentedly amid their labourers and their country neighbours. But they a.re not rendered selfish or worldly minded by their prosperity. They feel and admit the claims of religion upon them. In Elisha they recognize a "man of God; n first, it would seem, officially. As the official repre- sentative to them of the Most High, they regard him as entitled to kindness n.nd hospi- tality. They press upon him their good offices, insist on his taking his meals with them, "constrain him to eat bread" (ver. 8). When by degrees they have become acquainted with his character, they recognize in him something more-they " perceive that he is a holy man of God" (ver. 9). Like is perceived by like. It takes some holi- ness to perceive and recognize holiness. And the perception raises a desire for greater intimacy. Like desires like. It will be a blessed thing if they can persuade the pro- phet, not merely to take an occasional meal in their house, but to be an occasional inmate--to rest there, to sleep there. So the woman proposes to her husband to build the prophet a sleeping-chamber; and he readily consents, apparently without a murmur (ver. 10). He is neither jealous, nor stingy, nor ill-natured. The woman has her way, and her kindly nature is gratified by the frequent presence of the godly man, whose ministrations she attends on se.bbaths and holy days (ver. 23). And now her piety, which has been wholly disinterested, receives an earthly reward. The disgrace of barrenness is, at the prophet's intercession, removed from her, and she obtains the biess- ing of offspriag. N&.y, more. '!'hough death removes her offspring, he is restored to her, rendered doubly precious by having seemed to be for ever lost. The well-deserved prosperity of herself and husband culminates in this happy restoration, which puts the finishing touch to the earthly bliss that had lacked only this crowning joy. And so it is in life generally. Not only the proud and ungodly, but the godly also, are "rewarded after their deserving"· (Ps. xciv. 2). Many virtues, e.g. honesty, sobriety, industry, prudence, have a natural tendency to draw to their possessor a considerable share of this world's goods; as the opposite vices, dishonesty, drunkenness, idleness, imprudence, have a natural tendency to disperse such goods when possessed aud prevent their accu. mulation. Goodness, on the whole, secures the respect and esteem of other men ; and the respect and esteem of our fellows tends in various ways to our worldly e.d vantage. Men place more trust in the godly than in the ungodly, and situations of trust are, for the most part, situations of profit. Nor must we omit the consideratioa of the Divine blessina,0 which always rests upon the godly, in fa.et, and is sometimes openly mani~ fosted. "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ea.re are open unto their cry: but the fnce of the Lord kagaiuet them that do evil" (Ps. xxxiv. 15, 16); "No good thing will God withhold from them that walk uprightly" (Pe. l:u.xiv. 11). 'i2 THE SEOOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [ou. 1v. 1--44.
And thr entire reeult is that, upon the whole, even in this life, right conduct, goodness, piety, have the advantage over their opposites, and that happiness e.nd misery a.re dis- tributed, eveu here, very muoh "according to men's deserving "-not, of course, with- out exceptions, even numerous exceptions-but still predominantly, so that the law holds good as a general one, that "godliness hath the promise of this life." Our blessed Lord went so far as to say, "There is no man that bath left house, or brethren, or sisteni, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, hut he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, aud sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life " (Mark L 29, 30).