Ver. 21.-First purity, then peace. "And the city was quiet, after that they bad slain Athaliah with the sword." We can conceive of many occasions when the "slaying of a woman with the sword" should not and would not lead to quietude, but to unrest, to turbulence, and to strife. But this "wicked woman," Atbaliah, was the impersonation of usurpation and of idolatry. To slay her was to "put away the evil thing" from above and from the midst of the people of God. It was an act of purga- tion, of cleansing of the nation's conscience. It was a spiritual upheaval, throwing off a heavy weight that rested on the spirit of obedience, It was an act of excision, cutting off the guilty "right hand" that the "whole body" might be saved. If there be in the way of our conscientious adhesion to the cause, and engagement in the ser- vice, of Christ any such obstacle as was this Athaliah to the people of Judah, then no half-measures will suffice. The evil, whatever it be, must be slain with the sword, must be "done to death," must be relentlessly rooted out; then, and net till then, will there be quiet through all the region of the soul. We may find this Athaliah of ours in- I. AN INSINCERE PROFESSION OF FAITH we no longer hold, and consequently a dis- loyal practice in which we do not believe. II. AN IMMORAL OR INJURIOUS HABIT, which may be secretly cherished, but which we know to be guilty. III. AN UNLAWFUL GAIN, which our conscience condemns. IV. A COMPANIONSHIP (or companionships), which cannot be retaimd while Jesus Christ is honoured and obeyed.-C.
Vers. 1-11.-The coronation of Joash. I. PREPARATIONS FOB THE CEREMONY. (Vers. 1-10.) 1. Jehoiada's covenant with the captains. (Ver. I.) (1) The time. in the seventh year of Joash's life, when Jehoiada. felt that matters were ripe for a revolution. Six years of Athaliah as queen had put the people out of love with her person and practices. Even those about her court were becoming intolerant of her tyrannies and idolatries. Besides, six years had transformed the babe Jehoshabeath had rescued into e. boy, e. miniature king, who would much more easily and effectually arrest the popular imagination than an infant in arms. And, finally, Jeboiada had himself had leisure to watch the current of the times, to learn the temper and disposi- tion of the people, to test the characters of those upon whose aiJ he must rely, to acquaint bim~elf with all that would need to be done, an,l generally to mature his 278 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES, [ou. xxm. 1-21,