tide of discontent had risen so high that they could no longer tolerr.te their senile and im becilc monarch, and their courage had waxed so valinnt as to enable them success- fully to cnrry through his deposition, they bethought themselves of the imprisoned hero who hacl espoused and was then suffering for their cause,and having fetched him forth from confinement, proceeded with him to the then deserted palace, where they placed upon bis head the crown, amid shouts of jubilant enthusiasm, crying, "God save the king I" 1t is doubtless an ideal picture, which in its several details has oft.en been realized; as, e.g., when Joseph was fetched from the round house of Heliopolis, and seated on the second throne of Egypt (Gen. xii. 14, 40); as when David was crowned at Hebron on Saul's death by the men of Judah (2 Sam. ii. 4), and Jeroboam at Shechem by the tribes of Israel (1 Kings xii. 20); as when Athaliah was deposed, and the boy Joash made king iD. her stead (2 Kings xi. 12). 3. Surveying his fortune. So far as the new- made king was concerned, the commencement of his reign was auspicious. It doubtless never occurred to him that the sun of his royal person would ever know decline, or that he would ever experience the fate of his predecessor. It was with him the dawn or rosy-fingered morn; how the day would develop was not foreseen, least of all was it discerned how the night should fall! II. HoNoURED IN MANHOOD. 1. Extending his renown. Seated on his throne, he wields the sceptre of irresponsible authority for a long series of years. As lhe drama. of his life unfolds, he grows in the affections of his people. With every revolution of the sun his popularity increases. The affairs of bis kingdom prosper. The extent of his dominions widens. All the kingdoms of the earth come to place themselves beneath his rule. Like another Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Xerxes, Alexander, Cresar, he is a world-governing autocrat. "All the living who walk under the sun" are on the side of the man who had been born poor, and had once languished in a prison; neither is there any end to all the people at whose head he is. 2. Enjoying his felicity. Ooe would say, as perhaps in the he:,day of his prosperity he said to himself, the cup of his soul's happiness was full. He had obtained all the world could bestow of earthly glory, power the most exalted, influence the most extended, riches the most abundant, fame the most renowned, popularity the most secure! What could he wish else? 'l'he sun of his royal highness was shining in meridian splendour, and prostrate nations were adoring him as a god. No one surely would venture to suggest that the orb of hie majestical divinity might one day suffer an eclipse. We sball see I Strange things have happened on this much-agitated planet. III. DESPISED IN AGE. 1. The shadows gathering. The brightest earthly glory is liable to fade. One who has reached the topmost pinnacle of fame, and is the object of admiration to mill inns of his fellows, may yet sink so low that men shall say of him, as Mark Antony said of the fa.lien Cresar- " Now lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence." The idol of one age may become an object of execration to the next. As in ancient Egypt another king arose who knew not Joseph, so in the picture of the Preacher urew to manhood another generation which knew not the poor wise youth who had been his country's deliverer. He of whom it had once been said-
" All tongues speak of him, and the bleared sights Are spectacled to see him ... and such a pother [made about him] As if that whatsoever God who leads him Were slily crept into his human powers, And gave him graceful posture"- (' Coriolanus,' act ii. sc. I.) lived to be an object of delision to hie subjects. 2. The 71:iglit descending. In tb_e irony of history, the same (or a similar) fate overtook him as had devoured his 11redeces,or. As the men and women of a past age had counted his predecessor an imbecile and a fool, so were the men and women of the present age dispo~ed to look on him. If they did not depose him, they did not "rejoice in him," as their father~ bad tlone when they hailed him as their CQuntry's saviour; they simply sulTered lum to OH, IV. 1-]6.] ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. 97
drop into ignominious contempt, and perhaps well-merited oblivion. Such spcctacie~ Qf the vanity of kingly state had been witnessed before the Preacher's day, and have been not unknown since. So fared it with the boy-prince Joash (2 Kings xi. 12; 2 Chron. xxiv, 25), and with Richard II., whose subjects cried "All hail!" to him in the day of his popularity, but to whom, when he put off his regal dignity, "No man cried, 'God eave him I' No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home, Hut dust we.a thrown upon his sacred head." (' King Richard II.,' act v. sc. 2.) Learn: 1. The vanity of earthly glory. 2. The fickleness of popular renown. 3. The ingratitude of men.