The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 431

was a supreme and a fatal error. Be r,11.id the penalty of bis folly with his life, "His eun went down 'l'lhile it we.s yet day.' So passed, needlessly and unfortunately, one of the best and boldest spirits that occupied the throne of JudRh. Rega.rding his death 11.s that of one early removed from the scenes of earthly activity, we are nature.Hy affected cy- I. lTs EXTREME BADNE88. We are not surprised to read of so dcmonstmtive and eo fcrvent-nRtured a people 11.B the Jews were, that "all Judah and JerueRlem mourned for ,Tosiah;" nor that Jeremiah uttered hie prophet's plaint concerning him, It wo.s a time for profound sorrow ; and even passiona.te grief might., under such circumst11.nces, be excused. For the nation had not merely lost its chief; it bad lost an invaluable lel\der, a king who was leading in the paths of righteousness and. therefore of prosperity. There must come occasions to the country, to the Church, to the city, to the family, when one man's death will be felt to be a calamity. Very wise is that community, 811.cred or secular, national or domestic, that recognizes this fact and provides against it.; that secures such resources, material or Sfiritu&l, that when such a blow comes everything will not be lost; that when its best is t.aken it has still much in reserve; that it is not dependent for the maintenance of its liberty, or its security, or its vigorous existence on anything so precarious as one human being's life. II. ITS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Why did God not interpose to prevent Josiah from throw- ing his life away? Why c.id he let darkness come down at noon, and put an end to this bright and useful day? Why does he not now intervene between us and the death we speak of as premature? Why does he permit the young statesmen to overtax his strength and die in his prime; the young minister to commit himself to the treacherous tide and be drowned in the very fulness of his powers and the midst of his usefulness; tbe young missionary to expose his life to the savages who pierce him with the poisoned spear? We ask such questions, wondering, if not complaining, at the Divine inaction. But we might very justly and more properly ask ourselves another question-What right have we t.o expect that God will give to any man a particular term of earthly life that we may choose for him? Has he promised to confer any one length of days ou his servants? Is not the gift of every added day a prolongation of his goodness and his mercy? Ought we not, rather than complain, to bless him for the number of years he does bestow-a number which is greater than our rleserving? Would it be really wise or kind of our heavenly l<'ather if he were always interposing to prevent us from suffering the natural consequences of our error or our negligence, because we were right at heart with him? Would that be the way to discipline, to purify, to perfect his children? No! when God Jets death " Descend in sudden night On manhood's middle day," he ia not unrighteous, nor is he really unwise or unkind. Get down far enough, and we stand on the rock of righteousness and wisdom and love. We may look at- III. ALLEVIATING ASPEOTB OF IT. No doubt, when Josiah found that he was "sore wounded," and that he could not recover, he would grieve more or less, as Hezekiah did. But as be confronted death he would become reconciled to the will of God, and he would, probably, have some hope concerning himself for the future, and would entrust hie country to the care of God. But we have a much larger measure of alleviation than Josiah had. For there has visited us and spoken to us that Divine One who is the Besurrection and the Life indeed. And in the light of his revealing truth, and in the hope of his gracious promise, we look upon death as introducing. Uil into another part of the kingdom of God-another and a better; a sphere from which sin i.s shut out ;-and not only sin, but weariness and disappointment and sorrow; 11, sphere that will be ever brightening and broadening as added years reveal in us and to us "enlarged and liberated powers."--C. Vere. 1-19.-The great PasBOVer of Jo,i,ah. I. GBEAT IN USPE<Yr OIi' ITS OONFOB- JOTY TO THE LAW. To suppose (De Wette, Thenius, and others) that never before had a P&l!SOver been observed in Israel or Judah since the days of Samuel (ver.18; 1 Esd.r. i. 20, 21) or of the judges (2 Kings xxiii. 22), ie not only to extract an unwarrantable inference from the sacred text, but is contradicted by the fact that err. xxxv. 1-27.J 'l'HE SECOND llOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 435