The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 196

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-6.-Preferable things. This cannot be counted among the estimable acts of Asa; we could wish that he had adopted other means for repelling the attack of Baasha-means more worthy of himself as a servant of Jehovah. The abstraction of the gold and silver from the treasury of the house of the Lord may speak to us of the preferableness of- L ACQUISITION THAT WE CANNOT LOSE. The custodians of the temple no doubt rejoiced when Asa "brought into the house of God the things that his father had deilicated, and that he himself had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels" (eh. xv.18). But it was not many years before they endured the mortification of seeing these valuable things carried out again to enrich the foreigner-possibly to be taken to one of his temples. No great acquisition was this. The temple at Jernsalcm was more truly blessed by the genuine prayers and praises and sacrifices offered within its pre- cincts, albeit there was nothing left of them that the eye of man could see or his hand could finger. And what are our best, our real possessions? Not the gold and silver, the vessels and the jewels of which the thief may rob us, or 11ome revolution in the market may deprive us; they are the knowledge, the wisdom, the purer tastes and appreciations, the higher and more ennobling affections-the treasures of the spirit, which "no thief can break through and steal," which are not dependent upon the chances of commerce, or the conflicts of armies, or the passage of time. II. SERVICE THAT CANNOT BE RECALLED. Of little use, indeed, to the temple at Jerusalem was the treasure which Asa first carried in and then "brought out." Of comparatively little service to our friends and neighbours is the temporary service we render them-the money which we require again soon, the favour which is to be "returned," the "friendship" which the first small misnnderstanding will disturb and perhaps dissolve. But there are services which, once rendered, cannot be recalled, cannot be "brought out" of the treasury, under any change of mood or circumstance- kr.owWge, and the power which it imparts for all the after-duty and struggle of lire; co"!/,nsel, which guided the feet through some labyrir:.th of difficulty and led them into on. xVI, 1-14.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 197