The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 397

in the eighth yenr or his reign, while he was 9tiJ\ young, he began to seek after the God of David his rather" (2 Chron. xxxiv. 3). From this period his career seems to have been a singularly straightforward and consistent one: "He walked in all the way of Dnvicl his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left." What !eel to this decision in his eighth year we cannot tell. The age at which he had now arrived marks the time about which independent thonght commonly begins; possibly some increase of responsibility led him to deeper reflection; it may well bo that his mind had long been secretly brooding on religion, and he now took some public step which showed decidedly which side he was on. Nothing seems so beautiful as early piety. A character like Josiah's appearing after reigns like those of Manasseh and Amon is as n snowdrop at the close of winter. It is the piety which begins early that lasts longest, and shows the most blameless record. Beautiful in all, early grace is specially beautiful in those who occupy high positions, and are destined to exercise n wide influence. With many young men the sixteenth year of life is a turning-point in a different direction. Josiah then" began" to seek the Lord. Too often it is the period when the restraints of home religion are thrown off, and young men "begin" to think and act for themselves in forbidden ways. 3. The beginning of reform,. The chronicler gives us another date, viz. the twelfth year of J osia.h's reign, as that in which he began to effect a religious reformation in the land. "In the twelfth year be began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherim, and the graven images, and the molten images," etc. He was then twenty years of age, and the reforms mentioned, though begun in that year, extended on till after his eighteenth year. He had probably to begin cautiously, dealing with the more obviom1 abuses, and gradually feeling his way to bolder changes. A strong party, no doubt, were opposed to his reforms, and it is difficult to say how far they ha:1 advanced before the repair of the temple and the finding of the Law-book. The narratives of neither Chronicles nor Kings adhere strictly to chronological order, but we may suppose that before the projected repairs on the temple building were undertaken, both "the land and the house" had been purged of their worst abominations (2 Chron. xxxi v. 8). The Baal-altars, idols, and Asherim would be removed; idolatrous worship on the high places stopped, though the people may still have sacrificed on them, as in the latter days of Manasseh, "yet unto the Lord their God only" (2 Chron. xxxiii. 17); the sacrifices to Moloch in the valley of Hinnom put an end to. If this was so, it is certain that the temple, in which the worship of Jehovah, with a priest like Hilkiah at its head, had been restored, would not be left uncleared of its Baal-images, its horses of the sun, its prostitutes, etc. (eh. xxiii. 6, 7, 11). Things, in short, would be brought back to the state in which they had beeu left at Manesseh's death (2 Chron. xxxili. 15-18). This Josiah might safely attempt, though passages in the prophets show that much idolatry still remained. Earnest religion invariably brings forth its appropriate fruits in zeal for the honour of God, the purification of hi.s worship, and the purging a.way of evils and abuses. II. THE EIGHTEENTH YEAR. Hitherto, whatever Josiah had done had been more or less the result of his individual action. The conscience of the nation had not been touched, nor had any enthusiasm been awakened in favour of the new reforms. On the contrary, these bad probably aroused not a little bitterness and sullen hostility. At the head of this narrative in Kings, therefore, is placed the date of" the eighteenth year of King Josiah," when the movement enters on an altogether new phase, and swells to nationJ.1 dimensions. The immediate occasion of this change was the finding of the Law-book in the temple, and this again was owing to the repairs which the king had ordered to be executed on the sacred edifice. Glancing at present only at the narrative of these repairs on the temple, we find that they were : 1. Much needed. There is no record of repairs on the temple since the days of King Hezekiah (2 Chron. xxix. 3). In the interval the building bad frequenily suffored from total neglect, and idolatrous kings had made changes in its structure to suit their own purposes. '!'here were "breaches" to repair (ver. 5), roofs to fit with "beams" (2 Cbron. xxxiv. 11), and much carpentry and mason work to do with timber and hewn stone through- out the house. It is strange how indifferent those wh<> dwell in their own "cieled houses" can often be to the state of the house wherein God is worshipped (Hag. i. 4). It is the sign of a true zeal for God when there is a 1,roper desire shown to maintain  448 THE SEOOND BOOK OF 'l'HE KINGS. (oH. xxn. 1-20.