The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 407

Vers. 18-20.-Lessons from the life of Manasseh. I. A LURID LIGHT UPON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SIN. Manasseh's career brings into prominence certain truth~ upon the subject of human depravity which in these days of so-called culture and refinement are prone to be pushed aside, ignoTed, and forgotten. 1. That sin, wicked- ness, a dispo~ition to go astray from the paths of virtue, is an inborn characteristic of the human soul in its fallen condition; is a n~tive product springing up out of the soil of man's interior being, and does not simply come upon him from without as the result of his environment, as the combined effect of the circumstances by which he is surrounded and of the examples by which he is directed. Thie is what theologians are accustomed to call the doctrine of original sin-a doctrine which Scripture with perfect clearness announces (Ps. li. 5), which experience everywhere attests (1 Kings viii. 46 ; Eccles. vii. 20), which modem science with its law of heredity strikingly confirms, and which lends peculiar emphasis to the teaching of Christ as to the new birth (John iii. 7). 2. That this inborn principle of sin frequently reveals itself at unexpected times and under totally unlooked-for conditions. Concerning Manasseh one would have felt disposed to reason that if ever a child had the chance of being good, or at least of keeping down the evil that was in him, that child was the son of Hezekiah. Yet scarcely had he come to the throne at the early age of twelve than the wickedness of his nature began to break forth in almost full-blown violence. It is a warning to pa.rents not to slacken in their diligence or abate in their efforts to promote the godly education of their children, since the season for impressing them with right views of truth and instilling into them right principles of action is at the longest extremely short, and if neglected may lead to irreparable disaster in after-life; while it is a much-needed reminder that not even pious parents can infallibly secure the conversion of their children. and that after all these have the determination of their future characters and destinies largely in their own hands. 3. That the development of evi7 in human hearts and lives is often rapid and always downward. At least it was so with this infatuated prince, who began by exhibiting a singular precocity in sin, and ended not until he had all but exhausted the catalogue of crime. If he pro- ceeded no further in his downward career than sacred story represents, the reason likely was that hie ingenuity could devise nothing more atrocious. Indeed, one cannot help discovering in him a prototype of Shakespeare's Aaron, who says- " Tut I I have done a thousand dreadful things As willingly 11B one would kill a fly; And nothing grieves me heartily indeed, But that I can.not do ten thousand more." (' Titus Andronicus,' a.et v. so. 1.) Il. VALUABLE COUNSEL AS TO THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL USES OF ADVEllBITY. 1. Jt is always intended as a means of religious a;nd 'fMral_ i"!"provernent, whet~er it be laid on Baint or sinner. The Lord doth not afflict men willingly, but for their profit, on. xxxm. 1-26.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 413