Il. REASONS WHY THE }'EAR OF MAN IS STRONG. I. Man is visibly present and bas a power to injure and punish which cannot be doubt~d. 2. Man's vengeauc~ falls heav_ily and ~peC'dily. It is_ rarelY: delayed; and it is often of great severity. 3. It consists of parns and penalties which are more easily realized than those which God threatens. We know very w_ell what is meant by the death of the body, but what the death of the soul may mean 1s obscure to us. 4. If we offend men, it is very unlikely that they will forgi ,·e us. Most men regard clemency as a weakness, and exact "the uttermost farthing" from those who, they think, have injured them. Under these circumstances, the fear of man prevails. The rulers of Samaria, challenged by Jehu either to raise the standard of revolt against him, or definitely to embrace his cause, and mark their adhesion to it by embruing their hands in blood, must have balanced in their minds for a time the two alternatives-should they con- Bent to slay, without offence alleged, seventy persons obnoxious to the powers that were, undeterred by fear of Divine vengeance, to escape the anger of Jehu? or should they brave his anger, and refuse to engage in the massacre required of them, out of regard for the Law of God (Exod. xx. 13), and through fear of the vengeance denounced by God upon such as contravened it (Gen. ix. 6)? They yielded to the lower, but more immediate, fear, and submitted themselves to be ruere tools in Jehu's hands, because they feared man rather than God. Having made up their minds that their forces were insufficient to contend with those of Jehu, they put themselves at his dis- posal, and consented to do all that be required of them. So, constantly, in civil struggles, parties have put before them the alternative of following conscience and embroiling themselves with the civil authorities, or of defying those authorities, keeping their conscience clear, and observing the strict Law of God in the matters whereon they have to exercise a choice. Sometimes, as in the case of the Girondists, the better part is taken-duty, truth, virtue, are preferred to expediency, and martyrdom, a glorious martyrdom., is for the most part the consequence; bot generally the result is different- expediency carries the day, and the sad spectacle is seen of men sacrificing their principles to their immediate interest, and consenting to wade through crime if they may preserve their worthless lives by so doing.
Vers. 8-11.-The wicked have small regard for their helpers and confederates. Jehu had made the authorities of Samaria his tools. He had required of them the per- formance of a wicked and bloody act, such as despotism has rarely exacted from its instruments. Seventy persons to be slain in the course of a few hours-for no offence, for no state necessity except to smooth the path of a usurper I And the seventy persoDB for the most part boys and youths, some probably infants, and these defence- less ones entrusted to the care and protection of those who were now called upon to take their lives ! It was a tremendous burden to cast on men not previously his partisans, not bound to him by any interchange of good offices and benefits-rather, under the circumstances, his natural opponents and adversaries. Yet they took the burden on themselves; they accepted the miserable task assigned to them-they acerpted it, and carried it out. No doubt they thought that by so doing they had bound the king to them, made him their debtor, and laid him under an obligation which he would not be slow to acknowledge. But the deed once done, the deaths once accomplished, e.nd immediately the iDBtigator of the crime turns against his accom- plices. "Ye are righteous," he says to the crowd which has gathered together to gaze at the heads of the victims-" ye can discern aright; now judge between me and these murderers. 1 slew my master-I killed one man, a political necessity compelling me: but wl.o slew all these 1 " He holds up his friends and allies, without the least com- punction, to the poJJUlar odium. He entirely conceals the fact that he himself has been at the root of the whole matter, has conceived the massacre, and commanded it (ver. 6). He contrasts the terrible deed of blood, which has horrified e.11 who have heard of it, with his own comparatively small crime, and claims to have his light offence condoned, overshadowed as it is by the heinous deed of the Samaritans, We do not know whether by his speech be provoked any popular outbreak. At the least, he turned the tide of popnlar disfavour from himself to hie confederates, and left them to answer, as best they might, the sericus question," Who slew all these?" It is worth the preacher's while to 11n;,1css on men tue frequeucy of such conduct on the part of on. x. 1-36.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. 217