not in tho heart, but in the spirie. It is ambition ecclesiastical, and 1mbridled ! It is n snatching e.t spiritual function, domination, and claim of authority, unauthorizerl! Jt is o. zeal of solf-exr.Ho.tion and self-display, where selfs very vesture should be tho vcsturo of purity and of obedience I With Uzziah it was technical sacrilege. It none the lose s!1rely covere~ real sacrilege, which h!s. spirit desired, sought, and defiantly dared. '!he opportunity here may be well 11t1hzed by the preacher for dwellin" on and explaining the scripturally described triple designation of human nature "b~dy soul, and spirit." ' ' III. 'l'BE OUNNINGNESB AND SUDTLENESB OF THIS BIN OF THE SPIRIT. we do not inJeed, know the birth of this sin in Uzziah at all-when it was, what favoured it: when or bow it peeped_ out first ~o view. Thou~h it s~erns, as we read it, as though it were absolutely the evil suggest10n of an hour m Uzz1ab, yet the preparation so easily matured by Azariab, when he followed "into the temple after Uzziah, and with him fourscore priests of the Lord, valiant men," seems to indicate that those true ministers of the temple were to some degree forewarned and apprised of what was goine1 to be attempted. The cunningness was that this particular disposition and impulse°to sin bad lain dormant for many a year of useful, good, and perhaps holy work. And the subtleness of it ranges with the truth that higher intellects and higher intelligences are exposed to higher, finer, and more refined forms of temptation, the highest to the highest. Let men say what they will in derogation and superficial disparagement of the invio- lable sacredness of the offices and services and sacraments of the Church--differencin"' them from the older typical dispensation, when they differ not at all, except in demand of higher reverence and more spiritual unfeigned observance-it is indisputable that the most solemn warnings of apostles and Epistles point in this same direction of pro- test against all the offspring and widespread family of sacrilege. It is, indeed, in and of the very genius of Christianity to hallow intentions, vows, determinations, and works of religion with a sacredness aU their own. The rush and rage of modern national life may overwhelm and sweep away many an old and many a sacred boundary, but the might is not the right. And the might that seems to usurp successfully, as Uzziah's was not given to do, is inflicting only the deadlier blow and more inly wound. IV, THE OONDIGN PUNISHMENT OF UzzIAH. The disease of leprosy meant, marked, sin's last, typical chastisement for the body. And sin's last daring attempt of the spirit is stricken down with this loathsome stroke and scourge. It made the sinner hasten away to make if he could his escape; it makes the sinner loathe himself; it is the dread earnest of his shut-off, "let-alone," solitary condemnation. And one thin()" only-the blood of Jesus Christ-has efficacy to cleanse that leper. Though the prin~ ciple cannot safely be applied either by Job's comforters or any modern successors of them, yet the nature and severity of a punishment roughly measure the significance of the sin, the steps of which it tracks. And Uzziah's sin and punishment, startling as they are in their own connection, have been also written as admonition that might be greatly needed as the wayward ages should flow onward, even to our own, and perhaps to the end.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-5.-Premature responsi'bility, etc. In these verses we have a picture or a suggestion of- I. PREMATURE RESPONSIBILITY. "All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and me.de him king." They all agreed to set a lad upon the throne. Events seem to have justified their course; and if Zechariah the prophet, or, what is more likely, some prominent" prince of Judah," acted as prime minister or protector, he may have succeeded even in the earlier years of his administration. But it is a. very great mistake to devolve large responsibilities upon the young. 1. It is bad for the estate they have to administer, whatever tt:.<1.t may be. "Woe to thee, 0 land, when thy king is e. child," is a curse which has a wide application. The very young, with minds that must be immature, judge without knowledge, are swayed by persons rather than governed by principles, fall into serious and often into disastrous mistakes. 2. It is bad for themselves. It exposes them to ~everal temptations which it is not right they should encounter, nod it loads them with a weight of duty and difficulty 318 THE SECOND DOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [err. xxvr. 1-28.