event by Hself, but one of a series of such events ; therefore it could not have been an accident. It was preceded by three years of drought which began and ended according to the " word" of Elijah, with the miracle on Carmel. 2. By so ,hawing His h(J/Tl,d He evinced that He is ever working. (1) When events. a.re ordinary, men are disposed to see in them natwral causes only ; but extra- ordinary events force upon their consideration the fa.et of e. superior agency behind these causes. (2) Thie truth is the more evident when ihe ordinary are recognized in the extraordinary. Thus God ordered the battle. He appointed the genere.l, disposed the attack which was to assure the victory, e.nd timed every- thing so to tit in with circumstances as to bring about the promised result. (3) \Vith God there is no essential difference between things ordinary and extra- or,linary. It is simply a question of proportions. For natural causes are all second ea.uses, and would have no existence but for the First Gause. A miracle is but the unusual action of the First Cause upon the second causes; but in the usual action, God is none the lees present and necessary to the result. II. THAT HE RULES IN RIGHTEOUSNESS AND MERCY, 1. He humbles the proud in righteousness. (1) Defeat in any case is humiliation. To Ben-hadad after his confident boasting it was eminently so. He would remember the lesson, "Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off." Let us observe it. (2) The manner was an aggravation of tl.10 defeat. It wa3 accomplished by two hundred and thirty-two "young men of the princes of tile provinces," who are by some thought to have been a militia. raised by provincial magistrates, and by others, with perhaps better reason-for the number seems too small to answer the former description-the attendants of such of those princes as were then in Samaria. It was intensely humiliating that a company of such combatants should rout a formidable army. God makes the weak confound the mighty. (3) Ben-ha.dad would be mortified to think how his overweening confi- dence, together with his drunkenness, had directly contributed to his humiliation. He was too drunk to appear at the head of his army, but not too drunk to find his way to the cavalry to facilitate his flight. "There is but one step from the sublime to the ludicrous I '' 2. He shows long-suffering in mercy. (1) The jmlgwent upon Ben-he.dad was mercy to Ahab. It delivered him from the hand of a crnol oppressor. It gave him another warning and space for repentance. (2) DiJ Ahab deserve this? Certainly not, while he submitted to be led by Jezebel, and that notwithstanding his experience of the drought and the miracle on Carmel. God is long-suffering in mercy. (3) But there were " seven thousand in Israel, all tho knees which had not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him." Jarchi would identify these with the "seven thousand" mentioned in verse 16. Probably some of that seven thousand went to compose this, and for their s~es it may have been that God had so signally interposed. Let us never lose sight of God. Let us discern His hand in nature, providence, grace. Let us ~ever provoke His justioe by pride, by rebellion. Let us respect His long-suffer- mg by repentance. Let us throw ourselves upon His mercy for salvation, for help. -J.A.M.
_Vere. 22-30.-Wisdom in Oounsel. No man is so wise that it may not be to h!B advantage to consider advice; but in listening to advice we may be le,l astmy. Ther~ are two classes of advisers, viz., those who are inlluoncou by the "wisdom of th!B world," and those who are influenced by the "wisdom from above." Of both we have examples in the text. l. THE WISDOM OF THIS WORLD 18 A WISDOM OF EXPEDIENCY. 1. It is not ilestitute of sagacity. (1) It has its maxims of prudence. (a) Ben-lmclad's ooun~ellors woul~ not ~ave him underrate his enemy. The army they advise him to ra1Be for the mvas1on of Israel must not be inferior to that which hacl been lately vanquished (~er. 25). Let us not underrate our spiritual foes. (b) N oither would they have hrm uncle1Tate the quality of his soldiers. Thoy do not admit thnt his army was fairly beaten, but speak of "the nrmy that thou hast lost '' or "that /ell from thee." In this nlso they were ri~ht, for if Go<l h11,u no~ h~lped 502 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [oil. xx.1-48.