thi~; he thinks it is a proof that God is afar off or is quite indifferent; ho tnkes it as a ~ign that he me.y safely disregnrd the solemn warnings of God's Word, Dut he is fooliRh ; he cloe~ not understand the course of things. "\Vhen the wicked spring as the grass, e,nd when e.ll the workers of iniquity do flourish ; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever" (Ps. xcii. 7 ; see also Ps. lxxiii. 2-20). We may be surprised and pained at the prosperity of the wicked, at the enthronement of the sanguinary and the selfish. Where is God's rigbhiousness? where is the penalty of sin, we ask? Wait, 11nd we sball see. The end will come before long. The shameless usurper, man or woman, will perish; the guilty empire will be overthrown. Suddenly or gradually their fate will fall upon them. "How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment!" Nor is it only the man or woman that rises to eminence and to a l!reat estate who will prove the truth of this. Any one who hardens himself age.inst God stands in the most serious danger of being "suddenly destroyed, e.nd that without remedy," like the guilty woman at Jerusalem. II. E:i,.'THUSIASM u:r-.-nEn A TISE CONTROL. There must have been the greatest excitement raised and felt on this occasion. Everything contributed to kindle popular feeling and to raise it to its highest point. Wben they surrounded the little child and anointed him with the sacred oil, and put the crown on his young head and cried, "God save the king!" we may be i:ure that the emotion which on some supreme occasions fills and fires a multitude of people, was then as intense as it could be (see ver. 13); but Jehoiada held it under a wise control. And when Athe.liah appeared, and when they looked at her, and remembered what she had done and what a blight and a curse she had been to the land, they might well have slain her on the spot. But the priest of Jehovah would not have the sacred place profaned with her blood, and he stayed their hand; they conducted. her beyond the sacred precincts, and not till then did they inflict justice upon her. Feeling should never rise too high to be con- trolled by our judgment, especially strong feeling against any individual, man or woman. If we let our feelings carry our judgm.ent along with them, we shall be sure to do that which we shall afterwards regret and which may be quite irreparable. Nor is any man at liberty to say that he is constitutionally impulsive and cannot control himself. It may be a more difficult duty in some natures than it is in others; but it is every man's serious and sacred obligation to rule his own spirit, to maintain a mastery over his affections and his impulses and his resentments. This is to be the excellent result of daily discipline, of strenuous endeavour, of constant prayer. III. THE SERVICE OF DESTRUCTION. "Then all the people went to the house of Baal, and brake it down," etc. (ver. 17). As a rule, the way in which we serve Christ wisely and permanently is the act of construction, of building up. Better to sow a seed than to plnck up a root; better to raise a Christian sanctuary than to knock down a heathen temple; better to implant tbonghts of reverence and Jove than to rebuke and wither the profane word or the evil ha.bit. But there is a tirue to plant and also to pluck up; a time to kill as well as to heal ; a time to break down as well as to build up (Eccles. iii. 2, 3). There are evil and hurtful people to be put out of the room, pernicious books and papers to be put into the fire, ruinous institutions to be suppressed by the strong hand of law, deadly practices to be sternly forbidden. There is a time when "slaughter is God'a daughter," when the destructive hand is the organ of the will of Jesus Christ.-C. Ver. 16.-The basis of national prosperity. Jehoiada. knew that it would be of very little use to be rid of one ruler and to place another on the throne unless the nation itself could be bound in strong bonds to Jehovah, its true and almighty Sovereign. Hence the action he took as here described. L THE 'IBUE BASES OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY. Not a population outgrowing that of all other countries; nor an army and navy such as no other nation can equip; nor a full national exchequer; nor an extensive and extending territory. A country may have any or even all of these things, and yet be declining in strength and on the road to utter weakness and decay. The foundation of a people's strength is in {he possession of the Divine f avO'Uf'. And this because: 1. God will grant his Divine blessing to those that seek him. 2. And because God" loves righteousness and hates iniquity," whether in the individual man or in the nation; and it is in "the fear of the Lord" Ctl, xxlll, 1-2LJ THE SECOND BOOK OF THE Cil11ONICLEf'I. 277
that nil moral and spiritual integrity rests ns in its very root and source. That people, therefore, which would live and thrive mn8t be a people seeking God's face and acting in nccord11nce with his will, 'l'hen will it enjoy his blessing-that favour and succour with which it cannot fail to prosper, without which it is bound t-0 fall. II. A BOUROE OF SPIRITUAL STRENGTH. Jehoiada took advantage of the dynastic revolution to make it an occasion for entering into a solemn covenant" between all the people and between the king, that they should be the LO'T'd's people." The time was suitable for this renewal of their covenant with God. lie himself, a priest uf the Lord, hnd headed, indeed had originated and effected, the overthrow of the old idolatrous ,·lgime; the young king was to be placed on the throne as a worshipper of Jehovah, and now they might pledge themselves, in the most solemn and binding form, to be loyal to that Divine Lord whose, indeed, they were by a thousand ties. It was wisely and worthily done. Acts of national acknowledgment of God must need be rare. But it is open to Churches, to families, and especially to individual men, to renew the:ir vows of attachment to their Divine Lord; to affirm to themselves or to declare to their friends and neighbours that they are "the Lord's people." It is right and wise to employ any and every favourable opportunity of doing this. Such opportunity is found in: 1. The time when the soul returns to God from the far country of indifference and disloyalty, and realizes that it is admitted to the Father's home. 2. The time when the spirit is recalled from a temporary lapse, and again recognizes the supreme claims of a Divine Redeemer. 3. When we meet one another at the table of the Lord, and there are vividly reminded of the supreme fact that he "gave himself for us" unto shame and death. 4. On the reception of any special, personal, or domestic mercies at the kind hand of our heavenly Father.-C.