"All vice to which man yields in greed to do it, Or soon or late, be sure, he'll sorely rue it; Experience deep, howe'er false seeming blind him, Surcharged with retrilmtion, out will find him. It locks upon his soul a fatal fetter, Explodes throughout bis face in horrid tetter, Over his shameless eyeuall8 brings a blurring, Keeps iu his heart a deaJly fear-load stirring; At all pure joys with fiendish talon snatches, The noblest traits from out his being catches; Each beam and hope and vision darkens, His conscience stuns when e'er towards l,eaven he hearkont; On goading thorns his sleepless longing tosses, With soul remorse-foam pleasure's waves embosses. Sometimes from phantom-fears impels him flying, Sometimes in frantio horrors shrouds his dying; Now turns his dearest friends to cease to love him, Now spreads avenging Siva's form above him; Makes this world blnck with prison walls and gibbet., And in the next escape from hell prohibits. The whole creation's strange and endless dealing, In spite of shields and veils and arts concealing, Proclaims that whosoe'er is long a sinner Can only be by it of woe a winner." D.T. Vers. 1--S.-Athaliah's usurpation. Athaliah was the evil genius of Judah, as Jezebel waa of Israel. The mother was slain, but, unwarned by her fall, the daughter snatched at the reins of power, and held the throne for six years. The track of both was marked by violence, bloodshed, and political convu1Bion. I. THE WICKEDNESS OF ATHALUH. Ahaziah's death gave Athaliah her opportunity. Nothing could more clearly reveal the wicked disposition of the woman than the means by which she raised herself to the throne. When she "saw that her son was de&<l, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal." 1. She was a woman, yet, to pave her way to power, she did not hesitate to crush every feminine instinct in her breast, and to imbrue her hands in innocent blood. 2. She was a mother, yet she remorselessly put to death her own grandchildren. 'fhe youngest was a babe, but her savage temper made no distinctions. Her son's offspring were only rivals, to be got out of the way by murJcr. In this tigress-like nature of the queen-mother all womanhood is effaced. Truly " the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel" (Prov. xii. 10). . II. THE PRESERVATION OF JoASH. After all, Athaliah's end was not gai!lcd. Unknown to this savage woman, one of Ahaziah's sons, the youngest, was saved frum the general massacre by his aunt Jehosheba, and, after a temporary concealment in the 11tore-chamber of the pa.lace, was conveyed to the temple, and there secretly brought up. We have in this deliverance of the young Joash: 1. An exampl6 of faith u.ncl ,:ourage. It was "by faith" that the pious Jehosheba did this daring act, even a8 it was by faith that the parents of Moses hid their goodly child (Heb. xi. 23). And faith, in this instance as in the other, had its reward. 2. A proof of God's faithfulness to hi• promise. It had been promised to David that he should never want a man to sit on his throne (1 Kings viii. 25). That promise seemed now frustrated, when to outward appearance every descendant of David was destroyed. But "the counsel of the Lord standeth for ever" (P~. xxxiii. 11). No device of man can prevail against that. 3. An illustration of how God can defeat the designs of the wicked. Skilfully as the wicked lay their plots, there is generally something overlooked, forgotten, which brings them to nought. Some witness of their crimes is left undetected. They seem to bave closed THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [clI, XI, 1-21.
up every chink and cranny through which defeat could enter, yet it ls found that some loophole has been left. A g,)od a.ud true cause may be safely left in the hands of God. He will not suffer it to fall.-J. 0.