«tp•<m, (cf. 1 Cor xi. 18). Jel'Oboam'e arbitrary chc,ice led to e. division in the Jewish Church. Let ue briefly consider in what way the breach in tho national unity, hitherto eo close and conspicuous, was effected. 1. 1'he one centre of unity gave place to three centres of division. Hitherto, three times a year (cf. ix. 25) all the males of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, had gathered round one altar. Thither, "the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord." Now, insten-0. of going, even from Dan, the people went to worship before the co.Ives "even wnto Dan." The ten tribes turned their ho.eke on Jerusalem, and sought, some of ~hem, a sanctuary at the opposite point of the compass. Nor did those who worsh1ppe~ a.~ B~thel afford a. less striking proof of disintegration, for that 611:nctuary was within s1&'ht of the temple mount: The two pillars of smoke ascending day by day from nval altars, but twelve miles apart, proclaimed to all that there was a" schism in the body." 2. The one priesthood of .Aaron shared its ministry with the priests of Jeroboa;m. No longer were offerings brought exclusively to the sons of Levi, but " whosoever would" might burn the incense and sprinkle the blood. The schism was accentu- ated by the appointment of a new order of men, with vested interests in the perpetuation of division. B. The one ritual of Divine obligation was travestied by rites and ceremonies of hwman appointment. If the breach was widened by the intrusive priesthood, it was deepened by the unauthorized and forbidden cultus of the calves. The stranger, who came out of a far country for God's name's sake (eh. viii. 41, 42), to pray toward the house, found himself in the presence of rival systems, each claim- ing to be primitive and true, but differing so widely that he would go home to his own land, doubting whether both were not false. He would say, as others have said since, that before men compassed sea and land to make proselytes, they had better agree among themselves. 4. The one Feast of Tabernacles appointed of God was parodied by a Feast devised of mam. That feast, the most joyous of the year, had once been the greatest manifestation of religious unity which Israel afforded. It was the very "dissidence of dissent'' when the feast of the seventh month was straightway and osten- tatiously followed by a feast of the eighth month, celebrated but a few miles distant. It was the culminating proof of o,xo-ura'Ti.a. III. THE SIN OF KoRAH (Num. xvi.) This has been already twice referred to, as a part of the heresy and as a factor in the schism. But it may well stand by itself as a substantive part of the sin. It was just as great a violation of the Divine law to use the ministry of unauthorized persons as to worship at shrines of man's choosing or with ordinances of man's devising. This, then, was "the sin of Jeroboam." It was not rebellion, not idolatry, but the worship of the true God in unauthorized places, with unauthorized rites, and by unauthorized ministers. Nor did it make it less a sin that it seemed to prosper. The church of Jeroboam straightway became the church of the majority. At the time of the captivity it could boast of some antiquity (Judg. xviii. 80; 2 Kings xvii. 16). But all the same God put His brand upon it. Three miracles (1 Kings xiii.) were wrought as a testimony against it. The voices of the prophets were raised to condemn it (Hosea, passim; Micah vi. 16, &c.) But from year to year and reign to reign it flourished, and bore its baleful fruit, and then, after the schism had lasted two hundred and fifty years, while the kingdom of Judah, despite its idolatries, still retained for 135 years longer its place in the covenant land, the ten tribes were carried away to the cities of the Medas, were "scattered beyond the river," and disappeared from the page of history. And has this sin no lessons? has its punishment no warnings for ourselves l' If, as some seem to think, we may pick and choose our doctrines at pleasure; .if the Scripture is of private interpretation; if we are at liberty each one to set up his ow_n dogmas against the quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus of the Catholio Church ; or if there is no such thing as schism : if it is never mentioned or never reprobated in the New Tostament; if the Babel of sects-there are over one hundred of them in this England if ours-is according to the plan and purpose of our Lord; <lli. xn. 215-88.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 277
or if, 0,ge,in, the "form of sound words," the depoaitum jidei, the creeds of the undivided Church, have no e,uthority: if they ce,n be added to by the autocrat of Rome, or diminished from by any state, or sect, or teacher; or, finally, if there is no such thing as 0, " mission " of Christ's ministers ; if J.ny man me.y take this honour to himself; if those who have never been sent themselves may never- theless send othere--then this history ie void of e.11 meaning. But if, on tbP other hand, Christianity is the child of Jude.ism, and the Christian Church t'hii ,nheritor of tho principles of the Jewish; if that church is One e,nd CathoJ!c 0,nd Apostolic; if the faith was once for all (ll1raf) delivered to the saints; if on r Lord Christ sent His apostles even as the Father he.d se:et Him (John xx. 21); if they in turn "ordained elders in every city" (Titus i 5 ; cf. 2 Tim. ti. 2), and by laying on of hands (Acts xiii. 8); if the tactual succession is not a mere piece of priestly o.ssumpUon-then assuredly the history of J eroboe.m's sin is full of meaning, and "very necessary for these times." And the prominence accorded to it in Scripture, the twenty references to its working-we can understand it e.ll when we remember that "whatsoever things were written e.foretime were written for our learning," and that the Spirit that moved the prophets foresaw tile me.n.i.fold heresies and schisms of Christendom.