HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vere. 1-18.-The preservation and coronation of Joash. This is a. touching story of human wickedness and of God's overruling and preserving power. Three principal personages come before us here, from each of whom something may be learned. I. ATHALIAII AND IIEII WORK, Athaliah's life-work was a worlc of destruction. 8he did much harm. She did no good. A daughter of Ahab and Jezebel (sometimes called a daughter of Omri, whose granddaughter she was), she had inherited all the evil pro- pensities of her parents. She destroyed her own husband,Jehoram King of Judah. We read of him that "he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of .Ahab: for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife: and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord " (2 Chron. xxi. 6). She destroyed also her son .Ahaziah. We read of him that " he also walked in the ways of the house of .Ahab : for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly. Vvherefore he did evil in the sight of the Lord like the house of .Ahab; for they were his counsellors after the death of his father to his destruction" (2 Chrou. xxi. 3, 4). .And now she completes her destructive career by putting to death her grandchildren, the seed royal of the kingdom. There are ruany women like .Athaliah, whose life-work is a work of destruction. Wbat harm one wicked woman can do I Some corrupt the morals of others. Some, by their evil-speaking and slander, do what they can to destroy the reputation and good name of their neighbours. The Jezebels and .Athaliabs of Scripture story have their parallels in the Queen Marys, the Pompadours, the Medicis, and the Maintenons of more modern times. II. JEHOSIIEBA AND IIER WORK. Jehosheba's work was a work of preservation. She too was a king's daughter. But she had not been corrupted by the wickedness of the court. She was the wife of Jehoiada the priest-a gocd wife of a good man. She rescued Joash from Athaliah's massacre, and kept him hid in the priests' apartments in the temple. There he was hid for six years, until the time that, as a boy-king, he was called to the throne. If there are Athaliahs in the world still, there are also Jehoshebas. If there are women of cruelty, there a.re also women of sympathetic and compassionate spirit. If there are women who are corrupters of others, how many there are who by their own pure life and conduct have been the preservers of public purity and morality I If one wicked woman can do much harm, one pure-minded Christian woman can do a. vast amount of good. What an amount of quiet beneficence is being carried on by Christian women throughout the world at the present day ! What a vast number of ladies who visit and minister to the poor! What a. vast number of ladies who, in hospitals and in private houses, devote themselves to the noble work of nursing the sick I How many are engaged in instructing the young in our Sunday schools! How many have gone forth as missionaries to heathen lands! \V oman's work in the Christian Church, and in the cause of charity and philanthropy, seems to be increasing every year. III. JEHOIADA AND ms WORK. Jehoiada's work was of a twofold nature. His work ti•as both destroying and preserving. He destroyed idolatry. He put an end to .Athaliab's reign and life. He did not believe in the policy of non-resistance. He believed io doing his utmost to overthrow even the power of the reigning queen, when that power was wickedly obtained, and exercised in an evil way, dishonouring to God and injurious to the interests of the nation. Like many another rdormer, he incurred the charge of disloyalty and treason. But there are many things that need to be destroyed. .And who can overestimate the harm done by a wicked ruler? But Jeboiada was no mere revolutionist. He did not rebel against .Athaliah for revolution's sake. He did not put an end to her reign because of his antipathy to governments. He would have agreed with St. Paul that "the powers that be arc or,lained of God." He set up another king in her place, and, in place of the idolatry which she bad sanctioned, he set up the worship of the true God. We see in the whole narrative the overruling providence of God. Athaliah thought. she would make her power secure by her holocaust of young irinces. But man proposes, and God disposes. W ~ see also 236 THE SECOND nooK OF THE KINGS. [en. xt. 1-21.
the tMe of human in.strumeneality. God worke by means. He nscd Jehosheba to preserve the young life which in the end was the means, in Jehoiada's hand of o\'er- throwing the wicked power of Athaliah.-C. H. I. '