from that, special wisdom noted in bis father, one fatal defect existed. He asked tho ad,ice of the old. That it might not be said he asked the advice of one class alone, he asked the ad dee of the young also. But he did not ask the advice of God he did not pray for the direction of God. And his foot slipped; he stumbled and f;ll, and that fall was great. Two things were wrong with even his earthly wisdom. To ask the ad,ice of the young at e.11 was a mistake, and to a great extent even a contradiction in t.erms. For inevitably they were wanting in the experience which was necessary to draw upon for advice. To ask the advice of the young, after having asked and received that of the aged, was a greater mistake. It looked like a sham and a delusion, and a self-deception, and a craving after self-deception; and such it was. It was an affront to common sense, an insult to his own conscience, and a sop thrown to self-that enemy which is often, very often, a man's worst, very worst enemy I Rehoboam asked advice of those persons who he knew wouldn't be above giving the advice which he wanted. So be, indeed, easily got what he wanted. So it may be said again God per- mitted him to have what he saw he was bent on having, as he permitted the people and nation to have, some hundred and twenty years before, the king they were bent oa having. But he lived to rue the day, and rueing it still ever, he died. An unreason- able, a cruel, and a brutally insolent answer alienated once and for ever the hearts, service, and lives of the larger part of the people from their king; but a king who bad disentitled himself. A very few days and he was a fugitive (ver. 18), though to bis own capital-that capital one lamentably dismembered in its provinces. So stumble and so fall, sooner or later, those who set at naught kindness, justice, God, to serve self, folly, and time present. III. THE I!,FTh"ITE RISK OF MISOBIEF IBBEPARABLE THAT LURKS IN THE INTEMPERATE SIN, THE Th'TEMPF.BATE TEMPER, OB, PUT GENERALLY, THE INTEMPERATE ACTION, OF MEN IN AUTHORITY, BY REASON OF ';I'HE EASY EXCUSE FOB SCHISM, THE FACILE THOUGH SUPER• FICIAL DEFE!-CE OF IT, THEREBY OFFERED TO THE VERY LIPS OF THOSE WHO ARE, OR OUGHT TO BE, lTh"I>EB THEIR AUTHORITY, AND WHO OTHERWISE WOULD HAVE REMAINED IN HAPPY UNQUESTIONING SUJIOBDINATION TO THAT AUTHORITY. The illustration and instance of this here is patent and glaring. The disaster was enormous. The long- trailed consequences were mournful, melancholy, miserable. The fault and sin of the ten tribes or their representatives are undeniable. Their sweet reasonableness of yester- day and three days ago is, nnfortunately, not simply blown to the winds or evaporated into thin air-worse by far, it is converted into a determined breaking loose from some of the holiest bonds wherewith it is the mercy of Heaven to bind on earth. The kingdom of God is one ; the Church of .God is one; the people of God are one. Dis- guise it as laxity of creed may, disguise'it.as laxity of practice may, disguise it as the great ancient or even greater modern cleavages of apostasy may, the calamity is of the nature of an avalanche alike of faith and of good works, and ever buries beneath its disastrous debris, not bodies but souls innumerable, and of immeasurable worth. Hence the golden calves, instead of the One only Object of worship, without image or likeness. Hence Bethel and Dan, instead of Jerusalem without compare. Hence priests of the lowest life, i.e. without the credentials of devotion, love, Divine call and appointment. Hence, instead of the one altar, many, but these rencled, their ashes poured out to the ground, and incense a rejected abomination, and all the long-drawn sequel of woe untraceable by human eye, irremediable by human power. Does not the world take more loss from the dissensions of the Church than all the Church takes from the united enmities of the world ?
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers.1-4.-Two young men. These two young men, Reboboam and Jeroboam- for we may regard them as such, though the former was forty years old when he began to reign-may be viewed together, as they were brought together, and may furnish us with some useful sucrcrestions for the guidance of our life. We have them- I. STARTING FBO;"'DIFl"ERENT ENDS OF THE SOCIAL SCALE. Rehoboam born in the palace, born to the purple, surrounded with every luxury, accustomed to the utmost deference, expecting the greatest things. Jeroboam commencing his career almost at 1,he bottom of the sea.le, losing his father when quite young, obliged to work hard to on.::,:, 1-10.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 125