The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 317

they are not strong enough to carry. In most cases they break down, ln some direction, under their burden. Responsibility is not for youth; it is for prime and for the ripe experience of later life. II. THE INEQUALITIES OF COKDITION WHICH THE PROVIDENCE OF Goo ASSIGNS US, Uzziah "reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem," To him God gave more than he.If o. century of rower and wealth and their a.ttende.nt advantages. To others he denies these larger gratifications altogether, and grants very limited comforts, and these for a very brief hour. How do we acconnt for this? All is plain if we consider : 1. 'rhat neither justice nor kindness requires that God should give to one man as lar"e a heritage as ~e has given to. ,mother; it is no injury to me to_ whom he has given°one talent that 1t hB.ll pleased him to bestow ten talents on my neighbour. I had no claim to that one to.lent which, of his pure goodness, he has conferred upon me. 2. 'l.'he.t the chief value of human life depends neither upon its surroundings nor upon its duration, but upon its moral and spiritual characteristics. 3. That if there be any ineque.lities that, in the cause of righteousness, require adjustment, there remains the long future for redress. III. THE INFLUENCE OF MOTHERHOOD ON OUR CHARACTER AND OUR OOUBSE. It is not withont meaning that we have the record, "his mother's no.me was Jecoliah." To much too large a degree in the East all that the mother contributes is maternity. But "woman, beloved of God in old Jerusalem," gave much more than this. She was not a cipher in the home; she was an intelligent, active sharer in the thought and history of her country and her time. Jesus Christ owed much to her truer appreciation, and to her more faithful ministry. It is likely the.t Uzziah owed as much to his mother as to his father in the way of godly training and good home influence. A very consider- able nurn ber of the great and good men who he.ve rendered conspicuous services to their race became what they were because they grew up in the atmosphere or a mother's gentle and beautiful life. "No mother knows who or what she has in her cradle," or can tell bow great a share she may he.ve, by the training of the little child that is slumbering there, in the enrichment or the reformation of the world. IV. TEE INFLUENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN M:n.'ISTBY ON OUR CHARAOTER AND COURSE. "He sought God in the days of Zechariah "(ver. 5). No doubt this seeking of the Lord was very largely dne to the prophet's influence over him. The true Christian minister is, like the Hebrew prophet, " one that speaks for God" to men. And he who speaks for his Divine Master with faithfulness, with earnestness of spirit, in true and pure affection, speaking "the whole counsel of God" as he is able to learn and utter it, has a work to do and an influence to exert second to none in the hearts and lives of men. From the court to the cottage-home the gracious power of such ministry is felt in the land. V. THE PROSPERITY OF PIETY. "As long as be sought the Lord, God made him to prosper" (ver. 5). (See homily on eh. xxv.15," The folly of irreligion.") 1. There is no prosperity worthy of the name, or worthy of our ambition and pursuit, outside the fear and the favour of God. "Who bath hardened himself against him and prospered?" Many have seemed to do so, and have imagined that they did. But, in the light of Divine wisdom, they have miserably failed. 2. There can be no failure in the faithful service of the Supreme. What looks like it, there may be, there often is; but not the thing itself. For he who walks with God, and is the friend of Jesus Christ, must be what is right and good; must stand where he is secure from harm; must be witnessing for the truth of God; must be moving on towards deeper wisdom, purer joy, and a glorious estate beyood.-C. Ver. 5.-Seeing God. Zechariah "had understanding in the seeing of God" (mar- ginal reading). In what way did the prophet, and in what respects may we now, have such special "understanding "? L THE PROPHETIC PRIVILEGE OF SEEING Gon. It might seem, at first sight, that there would be no degrees in such capacity. If God enabled a man to see him and to know hie truth by granting him a vision, or by specially enlarging hie natural faculty, it must be of no consequence (or of very little) what bis individual capacities may be. But, thus reasoning, we should be wrong. God did not then, as he does not now, grant h;e Divine enlightenment independent of all human condition11. He had regard to: 1. on. xxv1. 1-23.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 319