so united o.s to be viewed o.s "one tribe," and are nnitedly called "Jndah." Th, temple was actually within Benjamin's boundo.ry. (3) To the remnant of the people. 'fhese consisted of priests and Levites, and godly people out of all the tribes who were unwilling to separate themselves from the house of David (2 Chrou. :xi. 18-16), 4. It commanded peace. (1) They were not to fight with their brethren. The case must be extreme that can justify a civil war. What miseries must ho.ve ensued if 180,000 warriors of Judah had encountered a. corresponding army of Israel I (2) They were to submit to a revolution which was from the Lord. Not that God was the author of it, but permitted to be brought about by the king and his people for the punishment of their wickedness. " What is brought about in the course of God's providence is considered and spoken of as done by Him as a general would say that he drew the enemy into a snare, which he had only laid in his way" (Julius Bate). II. ITS lillCEPTION. 1. They heMkened to the wO'T'd. (1) They recognized it as the word of God. Shema.ie.h was known to be a " man of God." His message also agreed to that of Ahijah, the fulfilment of a part of which pledged the fulfil, ment of the remainder. (2) To resist now would be to fight against God. This would be a hopeless business. But is not this the attitude of every sinner? 2. They retwrned to their houses. (1) The remnant of Israel were naturally glad to be spared the horrors of a war with their brethren. (2) So were the people of Judah and Benjamin. People are generally a-verse to war unless stirred up to it by their rulers. What a responsibility rests with war-makers I (8) Rehoboam is powerless withont the people. He is now thoroughly cowed. The discipline was good for him. This was seen in the next three years of his reign. It were well if all men recognised God's word when it comes to them. We have God's word written in the Scriptures of truth. Do we take it home to guide and oontrol our conduct ? -M. Vere. 12-16 ..;_The renli;i,ng of the kingdom. The name of Rehoboam is re- markable as seen in the light of the facts of his history. The "enlarger of the king- dom" becomes the chief instrument in its disruption. The one strong nation, the throne of which he inherited from his father, is changed by his folly into two com- paratively weak and distracted kingdoms, which maintain towards each other an attitude of perpetual jealousy and strife. The revolt of the ten tribes was a calamity from the ill effects of which the land never recovered.. Both politically and re- ligiously the unity of the chosen people was hopelessly broken, and the career of each separate division becan,.e henceforth one of ever deepening corruption. The northern kingdom was governed for two hundred and fifty years by a succession of men who followed only too closely in the steps of "Jeroboam, the son of N ebat, who made Israel to sin." Their reigns were little else than a story of crime and bloodshed and confusion. And though the history of Judah was not quite so dark, it tells very much the same tale. Few of its kings were wholly free from the prevalent wickedness. The efforts of the noblest of them, aided by all the moral mfluence of a long line of inspired prophets, were powerless to arrest the down- fall of the state ; till at last, aiter three hundred and eighty years, it sunk into tl1e shame and misery of the Captivity. How can it be said of all this, that" The cause was from the Lord''? Look (1) at the human element, (2) at the Divi.De element, in this transaction. It is full of meaning for every age. I. Tm: BUMAN ELEMENT. The rending of the kingdom was not a sudtlen event that came without warning. As in all such cases, a variety of ci.t·cmnst::mces pre~ p~red the way for it. There wore slumbering soul'Ces of mischief, certain conditions of thought and feeling, specially old jealousies between the tribes of Ephraim and Judah, that made it inevitable. But having regard to the nearer occasions, note- (1) How the seed of evil sown in one generation bears deadly fruit in the next. Trace the calamity back to the time when Solomon's heart first began to turn from the Lord. '£he root of it lay in his idolo.try, and in the oppressions into which hi!! luxury led him. That idolatry undermined tho deepest foundation of the nation's Uility in its loyalty to Jehovah, the G1·eat Invisible King; that tymnny viob.tc,l th@ 264 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [oH. XII, 1-2'-
public sense of righteousness, which is the strength of every nation, and kindled a emoulde1ing fire of discontent, which was sure, when occasion served, to burst into a flame. So t111e is it that the evil, as well as the good, men do " lives after them.'' Through the subtle relations that exist between man and man, generation and generation, the possible influence of any form of wrong-doing can never be measured. It spreaL1s in widening circles. All in the line of individual histo1·y every ma.n reaps what he sows-