sorrow of this world worketh death." Not only must evil be expelled, but good must enter; for if the heart is left II empty, swept, and garnished" by self-reforma- tion, the evil spirits will return. Good must supersede evil; Christ must supplant sin; the Holy Spirit must conquer the evil spirit. (Compare Acts xi. 17, 18.) A partial penitence gained, reprisve, 11,nd much more will a thorough repentance gain justification. As Trapp says, " If the lee.ves of repent11oDce be so medicinal, much more the fruit."-A. R. Vera. 1--4.-First Steps in the Path of Crime. I. UN11RIDLZD DESIRE. 1. The spi'.1·it in which Ahab came. He came down to Jezreel not to present o. thank- ofl.'oring to God for recent deliverance, nor to inquire wh11ot might be done to meet the wishes or improve the condition of the people. Had he come thus, po.the of useful. ness would he.ve opened up before him, and, instead of the do.rk memory of guilt, he would ho.ve left behind him blessing e.nd praise. God e.nd man were alike shut out, 11oDd self was set up as that which o.lone was to be regarded o.nd served. Such a spirit not only stands open to temptation; it invites it. Right aims shut out is half Sr.tan's victory. 2. How the temptation presented itself. He was 11,bout to make improvements upon the palace, e.nd his eye fell on Naboth's vineyard. This made into 11, garden of herbs would secure gree.ter privacy and allow other improvements to be carried out. As ho looked only upon his own things the o.dvantngos of the acquisition were magnified, the fire of desire was kindled o.nd fanned into even fiercer flame. A selfish spirit is readr to be set on fire by the slightest spo.rk of evil suggestion. There w11,s much in God's recent goodness, much also in the necessities of lsro.el, to raise Ahab above so small 11, care. The spirit of selfish dis- content, which "never is, but 11,lways to be, blast," mo.kes thankfulness 11,ml service alike impossible, If it ntle us we are already set in the way of sin. From the 528 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [en. XXI, 1-20.
spot on which we stand a hundred dark paths branch out-envies, jealousies false- hood, dishonest dealing, mean lying artifices, thefts, murders. When tempted to set _the heart on _what we have not, _let us co~e back into the midst of the good which God has given, and say that if He ~ee 1t to be best for us, that will be given too. 3. How the object was pursued. All restraints were cast aside. Ahab's offer (ver. 2) seems at :first sight most generous. But it shut out of sight (1) the ties which bound Naboth to his inheritance, and (2) the duty he owed to God. The Israelite could not alienate his lot even when pressed by direst necessity. It might be pa.rted with for a time, but it returned again to its rightful owners at the year of jubilee. Ahab's offer was a temptation to Naboth to think lightly of God's arrangements and to despise his birthright. II. _MISJ?ffiECTED AN~ER. "Ahab ca_me into his house 1:i,eavy and displeased,'' not with himself, but with ~aboth. _His anger was not aga_mst his sin, but against the man who had rebuked 1t. He might have stood and said, " I have sinned. I ha,e abused my position. I have been caring for my own good, and not for theirs over whom God has set me." But he took the side of his sin against the truth. He that struck at that struck him. When God meets us as He then met Ahab, we must either return humbled and penitent into the right way, or withstand Him and pass into deeper darkness.-U.
Vers. 5-14.-Sin's friendships, and what they lead to. I. THE SINFUL FIND MA~Y HELPERS. Ahab seems to have done all that he was able or oared to do. He had tempted Naboth and failed, and the matter seemed to have come to an end. But where Ahab stops, Satan's servants meet him and carry on the work. Jezebel prevails on him to tell the story, and the elders of J ezreel and its sons of Belia! are ready to do their part also, to give him his deeire and steep his soul in crime. The man who is casting away means and character and health and eternal life will :find friends to take the part of his worse against his better self, and agents enough to aid him in accomplishing his sinful will. It is vain to think of arresting a. career of vice merely by change of place. Satan has his servants everywhere. II. THE MISUSE OF INFLUENCE. There is much that may be admired in Jezebel's conduct. However false she was to others, she was true to her own. With tender- ness, which lends a peculiar grace to a. strong, regal nature like hers, she approaches the moody monarch. Under the warm sunshine of loving sympathy the bands which bind the burden to his soul melt away. It is laid down and exposed to view. But however good the impulses which incite the wicked to action, their feet take to the paths of sin. 1. Her sympathy becomes fierce championship of wrong. There is love for Ahab, but no consideration for Naboth, and no regard to the voice of justice and of God. How much human love to-day is after the pattern of Jezebel's-narrow, seIB.sh, unjust I The home is everything; the world outside has no claims, sometimes not even rights I Others are regarded with pleasure o.s they favour those we love ; with aversion and hatred so soon as they oppose them, or even stand in their way. Homee are meant to be tr11ining schools for God's sons and daug!Jters, where they may learn to be patient, forbearing, less exacting, o.ble to make allowances for difference of disposition and of judgment, and so p11ss out able to do a brother's, sister's part in the great world around them. But J ezebel's affection frustrates God's plan and arms the home against the world it was me11nt to serve. 2. She goads him on to greater sin. She blames him not for setting his heart so upon a trifle, but for letting the m~tter rest where it did. She reminds him of his might and Naboth's weakness: "Dost thou now govern?'' &c. How often does the sympathy of the wicked daringly recommend what the heart bad feared to think, and this too with reproaches of weakness, of wrongs and slights left unavenged I Instead of quenching the fire of hate, they fan it into fiercer flame. 3. She bears him onward into crime (vers. 7-10). Ahab's very we11kness would have prevented him shedding Naboth's blood, but her subtle brain and indomitable will supply what is needful to steep his soul in guilt. How many dark stains have l,een in this very way fixed upon the page of history I How much genius and talent have thus served, and are serving now, the devil's purpose I CB. XXL 1-29.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 829