HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-27.-The sad and strange unreliableness of human disposition and life here. One of the strangest of all the sadnesses of human life is the nncertainty and unreliable- ness of human disposition, which it is so constantly exposing to view. Not only has the fairest promise vanished (like the sun of many a morning) long before the character could be supposed to be firm or even fairly formed, but after the period justly esteemed critical has passed, after fruit ha8 set, and even after some fruit has been gathered ripe, alas for the failures and falls, the disappointments and distressing desolation, which have laid waste the scene! The turn in the life of Joa.sh, with his miserable end, of which this chapter bears record, is a very distinct and typical instance of what has been and is still often. And in reading the present chapter, we are forcibly reminded of the apostle's language, "All these things were written for our admonition." We cannot afford to regard the contents of this chapter as of merely historic interest; they are of terrible though kindly import for modern life and all life. In connection with this thought, the following points may be picked out in the matter of the present history. The life which thus in its a[ternoon, let us say, turned aside to evil, was- I. ONE WHICH HAD BEEN, IN THE VERY mCEPTION, NURSING, AND FIRST BEARING OF IT, ALMOST MIRAOULOUSLY SAVED AND GUABDED--THE VERY CllEATUBE OF PROVIDE!l'CE, THE CHILD OF DIVINE OARE AND WAT0IIFUL LOVE. Many an analogy really every whit as strong and impressive may be found and instanced by the practical preacher here; also cases which may be well within the knowledge of the parish or the country. II. ONE THE BIGHT BEGINNING OF WfilCH WAS CONSPICUOUS BOTH FOR THE GREA,r:m:ss AND THE WORTHINESS OF ITS ZEAL. III. ONE WHICH HAD ENJOYED TIIE SUSTAINING HELP OF THE BEST AND MOST FAITH- FUL OF FRIENDS. These friends had been of the kind that well remind us of the psalm of Joash's ancestor; for his "father and mother had indeed forsaken him," when " the Lord took him up," in the persons of the priest and his wife. All the incalculable advantages of the best of early associations and religious prepossessions had been the happy portion of Joash, now-when every recollection and reminiscence should have been gilding itself with fresh sacredness-to be f!UI1g away to the winds, as though they were presences to the mind as much to be dreaded as in fact they were worthy to be cherished. IV. ONE THE WBEN0H OF WHI0H WITH THE PAST WAS SURPRISINGLY VIOLENT AND ABSOLUTE; AND ITS MOTIVE AS SURPRISINGLY UNJUSTIFYING OF IT. This apparently absolute reversal of what had hitherto seemed character e.nd goodness was above all witnessed to by one central blackest blot in the conduct of Joash. Guiltily did he forget the debt his own very pulse and beating heart owed to the preservers of his life, when he commanded that Zechariah. the son of their love, be stoned to death for his righteous remonstrance and warning. His dying words," The Lord look upon it, and require it," no doubt did not mark the spirit of unforgivingness; they did mark, and justly, the turpitude of the sin which wns bound to '.' fin~ out''. the perpetrator of ~t ! And then the motif of the conduct of J oash I It 1s written rn ver. 17. The brief Z88 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [err. xxiv. 1-27.
suppressed Jangm1.~e, which does there write it, tells the more significantly of its dishonour- ableness and desp1cableness, only fit to shun the eye of day I .And the warnings of the Lord God of the fathers of J oash and his people, 11.re so touchingly expressed, especially in ver. 19 ! These preclude the possibility of our deducting anything of blame from Joash, on the ground of his being taken unawares, or surprised by some sudden gust of temptation. This type of thing has indeed numbered its antitypes, times without num bcr; but was it not thus forcibly delineated, deeply graven or etched, that whoso should have eyes to see might see, and ears to hear might hear? V. ONE THE END OF WHICH REVEALED MOST FEARFULLY ALIKE THE REVULSION OF MAN AND THE SOLEMN RETRIBUTION OF GoD. With what smitten wonder our awed thought follows unwittingly, but trembles to essay to track the ways of God's hidden judgment, when the account of this present life is once summed up,-hidden because that account is summed up! What solemn need for every man to watch and pray; to walk humbly; to take heed bow he stands; and to remember the warnings of those of whom thus is the record, that they "did run well" I