we keep to it. Performance must follow upon promise. The people were bound, not merely to "stand to the covenant," in the way of profe88ioa, just once in their lives, but to stand to it, in the way of actbn, thenceforward perpetually. It was here that they failed; and it is here that men most commonly fail. To resolve is easy; to stick to our resolutions, diflicuH. The writings of Jeremiah prove to us that, within a very few years of their acceptance of the covenant in the eighteenth year of Josiah, the people of Judah cast it behind them, became a backsliding people, returned to their idolatrieH and abominations, forsook God, and sware by them that were no gods, committed adultery, assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses-were "as fed horse.➔ in the morning, every one neighing after his neighbour's wife" (Jer. v. 7, 8). A righteoUB God could not but "visit for these things "-could not but "be avenged upon such a nation as this" (Jer. v. 29). Vers. 4--27.-The inability of the best inteneions and the str<mgest wi?l to convert a nation that is corrupt to the core. J osiah's reformation was the most energetic and the most thorough-going that was ever carried out by any Jewish king. It far transcended, not only the efforts made by Jehoiada in the time of Joash (eh. xi. 17- 21; xii. 1-16), and the feeble attempts of Manasseh on his return from Babylon (2 Chron. xxxiii. 15-19), but even the earnest endeavours of Hezekiah at the beginning of his reign (eh. xvii. 3-6). "It extended not only to the kin:::dom of Judah, but also to the former kingdom of Israel; not only to the public, but also to the private, life of the people. The evil was everywhere to be torn out, roots and all. Nothing which could perpetuate the memory of heathen or of illegitimate Jehovah- worship remained standing. All the places of worship, all the images, all the utensils, were not only destroyed, but also defiled; even the ashes were thrown into the river (?) at an unclean place, that they might be borne away for ever. The idol-priests them- selves were slain, and the bones of those who were already dead were taken out of the graves and burnt. The priests of Jehovah, who had performed their functions upon the heights, were deposed from their office and dignity, and were not allowed to sacrifice any more at the altar of Jehovah" (Bahr). It may be added to this account that private superstitions, the use of teraphim and gillulim, together with the practice of witchcraft and magic arts, were put a stop to, and the rightful ordinances of the Mosaic religion restored and re-established. with the utmost strictness and exactitude ( veni. 24, 25). Josiah did all that a godly king could do to check the downward course of his nation and recall it to piety and virtue. And for his efforts the sacred writers give him the highest praise (eh. xxii. 2; xxiii. 25; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 2; xxx.v. 26; Ecclus. xlix. 1--3). It has been reserved for modern criticism to discover that he defeated his own ends by the violence of his methods, and injured the cause of true religion by me.king a book-" especially such an imperfect law-book and history as the Pentateuch " -.-the fundamental law of the nation (Ewald, Eisenlohr). It has not, however, been as yet shown that Josiah's methods were any more violent than the La1v required (Exod. xxii. 20; Deut. xiii. 5, 9, 15), much less that injury is done to the cause of true religion by the adoption of a sacred book as the standard of religious truth and morality. The real reason for the failure of his reformation was "the irreformability of the people." When they professed to turn to God, they did not do it "with their whole heart, but feignedly" (Jer. iii. 10)-at any rate, with but half their heart, moved by a gust of sentiment, not by any deep strong tide of religious feeling. And so t.hey soon relapsed into their old ways. '£he severe religion, the stern morality, which Josiah sought to impose, had no attraction for them. They shrank from Mosaism as cold, hard, austere. They preferred the religions of the nations, with their lax morality, their gay rites, their consecration of voluptuousness. So they "slid back by a perpetual backsliding" (Jer. viii. 5); they reintroduced all the old abominations; they sinned in secret when they were unable to sin in public ; they " proceeded from evil to llVil" (Jar. ix. 4). It has been argued (Ewald, 'History of Israel,' voL iv. pp. 242, 2!13) that if ,Josie.h's life had not been cut short within thirteen years of his undertaking the great national reform, if he had been permitted to carry on for some years longer in the same spirit the work which he had initiated, there might have been a complete remove.I of all the ancient and deep-rooted evils, and a lasting impressio11 might have been made upon the character of the whole people. But this seems too 464 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINOB. [oH. :u:m. 1-37
favourable a forecast. The nation was rotten to the core; the "whole head was slo and the whole heart faint;" "from the sole of the foot even unto the head there was no eoundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores." When such is the 0&8e, no human efforts can avail anything-not the strongest will, not the wisest measures, not the purest and best intentions; the time for repentance and return tc, God is gone by, sod nothing remains but "a certain fearful looking for of judgment 'llld fiery indignation, which shall destroy God's adverearies " (Heb. x. 27).