J. TIIE RARE VANITY OF BUMAN ENDEAVOUB TO l'ROVIDE DY ANY OONTRIVANOEB AGAINST _T!fE ooNSEQ~NOEs· o~ ITS OWN FAULTS AND srns. No disposition in his will, no d1spos1t10n of the gifts of bis property on the part of J eboshaphat, suflked to avert these in this instance (vers. 3, 4). II. THE IMMENSE ADDITION OF PAIN AND PUNISHMENT FOR SIN THAT ARE INVOLVED HEREIN IN EVEN SUCH POOR MEASURE OF FORESIGHT AB BELONGS TO HUMAN NATURE, This is an indication of the great mercy that lies in the limited measure of the powers of human nature. To be bunted and goaded by the forces of memory from behind and at the same time t.errified by the only too just apparitions of anticipation and the pictures of what awaits us in front, even in this life,-how dreadfully mi"ht they at times add to the misery of life! How often might they induce remorse, and° the despair that comes of remorse I III. THE SPECIAL ROYAL HUMILIATION AND PUNISHMENT WBIOH CONSIST IN VIOTORY, POSSIBLY VICTORY ON VICTORY, 'WITHOUT CONQUEST. (Vers. 8, 10, 16, 17.) It is the Sisy- phus of kings and rulers and nations, and Jehoram was the Sisyphus of this time and history. But it involves also misery and a scourge for the nation cursed with such rulers. JV. THE AOCUMULATION OF RETRIBUTION THAT COVERED AND CROWDED THE END FOB JEHORAM. Forewarned by the great Prophet Elijah, perhaps the very last, certainly among the very last, of the acts of his ministry, a horror of a bodily disease; a plague for his people, his children, his wives, and his goods ; the slaughter of all his sons save one--the one necessary to carrying on the line of Judah ; an unhonoured death, and the forfeiting of a place in the ancestral sepulchres of the kings ;-these were "the portion of his cup," and the filling up of its bitterness-the retribution of an iniquitous nnd godless career, apparently unrelieved by a single virtue or sin~le good deed I It was impossible, indeed, that his father could learn from notice and experience of the son; but" all these things were written for our admonition" for all succeeding generations, and tell their gravest lessons, and offer their most fearful warnings for many another father.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-11.-.A life spent in ttndoi11g. For the quarter of a century Jehoshaphat spent all his individual power and devoted all the weight of his royal office to the work of establishing piety, justice, and (in consequence) real prosperity throughout his kingdom. And right well he succeeded. When he died he left Judah much purer, stronger, and richer than he found it. Then came his fi.rstborn son in succession to him. And what came with him? What else but a baneful and lamentable undoing of all that he himself had dorie-all, at least, that his son had it in his power to overturn? L THE COURSE OF oi."'E EVIL LIFE. 1. Jehoram's reign began in selfish cruelty. To secure his own position, he murdered his six brethren; to avert a contingent evil to himself he wrought the last and worst evil to his own mother's sons (ver. 4). 2. It went on toFsonal apost,asy. (Ver. 6.) _Heturn~away from the God ofhisfathers,,from the worship of the God to whom he Illlght and, mdeed, must have known that his throne was due, to serve Baal ; and in so doing he forsook the way of wisdom and of purity for paths of error and iniquity. 3. It led down to the abuse of royal power. For he not only made Jerusalem to be partaker of his sin, but he tyrannically compelled Judah to do the same (ver. 11). He employed his royal authority (and probably his standing army) to constrain his people to depart from the way of holiness, from spiritual and moral integrity. 4. It issued in national disaster. In the loss of the Divine favour; in the consequent defeat of his troops and _loss of a depende?CY; in the revolt of an important city (vers. 8-11). 5. It closed 1n an early and miserable death. II. !Ts KOST STRIKING CRARACTERIBTIC. It went far to undo all that a long and devoted life, all that a useful and brilliant reign, had done. It pulled down a large part of that which had been so carefully, so laboriously, so wisely constructed. How easily, and in how short a time, can a bad man undo what his predecessor, with infinite effort, has accomplished ! The striking and the holding of a lucifer match may bring the stateliest structure to a heap of ruin, The deflectioJl from the way of rectitude Qll oH. xxr. 1-20.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES.