Ven:. ~7-19.-Blow upon blow. Ahaz wss a very grettt transgressor, an,\ he was (ns we might <'xpect he would be) it very great sufferer. He received blow npon blow from the righteous h11.nd of that holy Ruler who by present and temporal visitations WA$ educating his people in the w11.ys of heavenly wisdom. First Rezin Kiner of Syria defeated him, and c11.rried away many captives to Damsscus (ver. 6). •lhen Pekah King of Israel slew his army with a great and pitiless slaughter (ver. 6). 'rhen th<' Edomites smote Judah, and went away with the usual spoil (ver. 17), Then the Philistines "in'"aded the cities of the low country," and took several important places (ver. 18). Thus "the Lord brought Judah low because of .Ahaz," One blow fell after another, until the la.nd wa.s thoroughly smitten a.nd stripped, left "naked to its enemies" (ver. 19). We are reminded by these successive inflictions of- I. THE AOCUltlULATING PENALTY WRIOH SIN ALWAYS PAYS. 1. This often comes in the form of obvious and apparent losses. The trangressor who" fears not God, neither reg•rds man," finds himself subjected to a series of adversities, which he regards as misfortunes, but which we recognize as penalties. He loses the confidence and esteem of his worthier neighbours; then he loses custom, trade, support, and then and thus he loses money; then he loses his substance by extravagance and, it may be, by one or more expensive vices-and vice is a very expensive thing; then be loses health and spirit and hope; tben he loses the regard of his neighbours generally. So, step by step, he goes down, until "the Lord brings Judah low," until he has "made the land naked." 2. Or penalty may come in the way of inward and spiritual deteriora- twn. We cannot pretend to say in what order this proceeds; it varies witb. individual souls; but blow upon blow descends; bruise upon bruise is suffered by the soul; one defence after another is taken away from the citadel until the land is "naked." It may be that the fine sense of truthfulness goes first ; then, perhaps, the spirit of reverence; then the loss of thorough rectitude; then the loss of purity; then may come an indifference to the judgment of the good and wise; then the decay of self- respect ;-and what then is left? Let the man who, like Ahaz, hardens himself against God understand this, that as he goes on his guilty way, even if outward prosperity remains to him, there is descending upon his spiritual nature, upon himself if not upon his circumstances, blow upon blow of righteous penalty-blows which a.re bruising and slaying him, beneath which he is surely perishing. II. THE MULTIPLIED SORROWS WHICH RIGHTEOUSNESS SOMETIMES ENDURES. "Many are the afflictions (~ven) of the righteous" (Ps. xxxiv. 19). To the patient Job, to the faithful Jeremiah, to the devoted Paul, they come in large number aud in great strength. Even to the purest and loveliest of the sons and daughters of God there sometimes falls a sad succession of trials; it may be in the heart and on the lips of the most worthy to say," All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me." Blow upon blow descends upon thP.ir head. What does it mean? It simply means that the branch which is bearing fruit the Lord of the vineyard is pruning, "that it may bring forth more fruit; " it means that "whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," in order that he may make them to be "partakers of his holiness;" it means that the Divine Master is refining and cultivating his servant, to prepare him for a far broader and nobler sphere and for higher and heavenlier work hereafter; it means that affliction ie working out an "exceeding weight of glory."-C.
Vere. 21-27.-Sin in its US'U,eS. To what will sin lead us? What, when it nears its end and when it is finished, will it bring forth? We have the answer in this portion of .Ahaz's life. I. Ji.'FATUATION. He robbed the palace and even plundered the temple in order to bribe the King of .Assyria to help him, instead of going to the house of the Lord as a servant and suppliant of Jehovah, to seek and find his help. That is to say, he committed robbery and ea.crilege in order to secure the succour of a man who after- wards deceived and defrauded him (ver. 21), when, by simple piety and integrity, he might have secured the aid of Omnipotence, the help of One that never fails his people. His course was one of utter infatuation. He neglected the one way that was quite open to him, and that would certainly bavP, succeeded; he adopted a measure that was full of iniquity, and that was likely to end, as it did, in failure. He put the finishing stroke to his fatuity when he worshipped "the gods which smote him" (ver. 23). cm. XXVIII. 1-27.] ·rHE SECOND BOOK OF TH~ CHRONICLES. 339