Sin doos lend down to infntuntion. It leads men to seek their joy and their heritage in the poorest nnd most unsatisfying springs, to pursue wisdom and wealth in direc- tions where emptiness nncl poverty are alone to be obtained; it leads men to neglect the Fountain of living waters, the Source of all truth and wisdom, of all excellency and joy. It strews the path of the guilty with melancholy failtues. II. DEFIANOE, .Abaz could hardly go further in defying the Lord God of his fathers, tho Divine One whom be was taught and trained to worship, than be did by bis conduct ns here described (vers, 24, 25). It was an act of unholy hardihood, of almost desperate defiance, thnt could only be the outcome of a guilty obduracy of spirit, He must have resented the action of Jehovah and determined to go all possible lengths in defying his authority, Well might the spirit of Isaiah be aroused as he witnessed this profanation, this open and daring rebellion against the living God. When men have long given way to their folly and to their sinful inclinations they do sometimes go to this awful length. 'rhey defy the God that made them, in whose power they stand. They may deny his existence; they may mock at his juJgments, and at his final condemnation of their course; they may speak arrog:mtly ::md impiously of his power and of his rule: "How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High?" (Ps. lxxiii. 11). III. DEATH. Ahaz went down to an early and a dishonoured death (ver. 27). We do not wonder that he died before he reached the age of forty. The disasters he brought upon his country, and the mental strain which he must have undergone to proceed to such lengths of impiety, are enough to account for a premature decline and death. And all the better instincts of that instructed people led them to refuse thE funereal honour they usually paid to their kings. "Sin, when it is finished, bringetl: forth death." 'l'he issue of all sin is death-physical, spiritual, eternal. This Lq its wages. Let those who are moving down its sad decline take note of the end to whicb. they move. But let us realize that to all who will turn from its enticements and break from its evil power, to all who will accept the supreme gift of God in J esUll Christ, "eternal life" is open (Rom. vi. 23).-0.
Vers.1-27.-" Th-is is that King Ahaz." I. A DEGENERATE SON. Ahaz, "Grasper" or "Possessor." In the Tiglath-Pileser inscriptions, which probably confounded him with the son of Jehoram (eh. xxi. 17), he is called Jehoahaz, "Whom Jehovah grasps," though the Scripture writers may have dropped the prefix" Jeho-" on account of his wickedness (Schrader, 'Die Keilinschriften,' p. 264). 1. He possessed his father's nature. Of necessity, as his father's son (Gen. v. 3). Yet he improved not upon that nature, but rather deteriorated and com1pted it. Heredity in him took a downward direction. Some knowledge of who his mother was might shed important light upon th<J question of how he came by his peculiarities of character and disposition. 2. He enjoyed his father's example. Jotharo "prepared his ways before the Lord his God" (eh. xxvii. 6), yet hi8 pious conduct seemingly exerted no beneficial in.lluence upon bis son, Ahaz followed not his father's footsteps, but carved out a path of his own. Example, especially when good, may be potent, but is not omnipotent. 3. He obtained his father's throne. Yet he rather tarnished it than added to its lustre. New dignities do not give new hearts or new powers. At the age of twenty-five years younger than his father (eh. xxvii. 1), and only four years older than bis grandfather (eh. xxvi. 1)-he assumed the crown of Judah. If the reading" twenty-five" years (Vatican text of the LXX., Arabic, Syriac) be preferred (Ewald, Thenius, Bertheau, Keil, Bibr), on the ground that otherwise he must have married in his tenth or eleventh year, in order, after sixteen years, to be succeeded by a son as old as Hezekiah, who was twenty-five on ascending the throne (eh. xxix. 1), he was still but a youth when crowned, which may suggest that early promotion is not the same thing as earl)'. conversion. 4. lie lacked, i.e. did not possess, his father's goodness. Grace runs not m the blood (John i. 13), though corruption does (Job xiv. 4; Ps. Ii. 5). A man may communicate to his son wealth, learning, fame, power; he cannot, certainly, impart either grace or gnodness. 6. He attained not to hisfather·s grave. When he died his people buried him in Jerusalem, but not in the sepulchres of the kings of Israel. He who in his lifetime had been no trne Israelite, though he wore a crown, must not in bis death be laid among the sovereigns who were Israelites indeed. Death, which destroys all 840 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [on. xxvm. 1-27.