impuulty ie cherished, the fire of lust that seemed smouldering flames up with inoreascd intensity; the wioked plot is executed; the covert passion breaks out into the overt act; the half-st.ifled concupiscence finds vent; the lustful, covetous, or ambitious project is accomplished. Yli. DRUNKENNESS IS A PREPARATION FOR OTHER WIOKEDNESB. The refemnoe to it in ver. 5 is interjected between the mention of 11dultery and other enormities as if it were BR incentive thereto. 1. The oCCRsion on which tho intemperance t~ok place was a celebration day, whether the king's birthday, or the day of his accession to the throne, or his coronation day. As it was, it is; days of celebration while not improper in themselves, may be turned into days of sinful carousal. Days of high festival that ought to be days of thanksgiving to God, of grateful praise ancl holy joy, are too often taken advantage of for purposes of intemperance, gluttony, or dissipation. Days that should be consecrated to religious exercises or real national rejoicing o.re too frequently desecrated by irreligious sensuality and anti-religious debauch. 2. Accord- ing to the common rendering, the he11lth of the king suffered; according to another rendering, which some prefer, the day was begun so that bis honour was tarnished. According to either, his high dignity was levelled in the dust. It is had enough and saJ enough to see any man indulge in the sin of intemperance-a sin which deranges and disorders the body, damages the soul and its eternal interests, dishonours God, and degrades man below the beast that perisheth. But for a king who is appointed to govern others to lose the government of himself through such scandalous excess, is the extreme of ,ileness; hence the faithful admonition, "It is not for kings, 0 Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine." 3. While the duty of a king was neglected, the dignity of a king was sacrificed. Kimcbi bw; the following judicious remark in reference to this matter: " 'l'he prophet says, What was the business of the princes with the king? 'l'here was no conversation about the might and conquest_ of the enemies and about the establishment of justice, as it becomes the king of a free nation, but their business consisted in eating and drinking until they made the king sick from the excessive drinking of wine." Even worse, if possible, was the fact of hie debasing him- self by companionship with profane scoffers. Rashi aptly observes, "The king with- <lraws his hand from the good and worthy in order to join in fellowship with scorners. 'l'he men that put the bottle to bis mouth with professed friendliness were, as the event proved, plotting his ruin and preparing for his assassination." YIIL THE SEEMING RESPITE i'BOK, AND REACTIONARY NATURE OF, SIN. The respite was not a real rest from sin ; it was only the interval while the mischief was being premedi- tated, and the opportunity for putting it in practice waited for. 1. In the morning, at the first a.nd earliest opportunity, soon as the plot was matured and the favourable moment for its execution arrived, the fire of passion or lust that had been burning slowly all the time broke out afresh and with greatly increased vigour. 'l'hey made ready, applied, or, as Pusey says," literally brought near their heart. Their heart was ever brought near to sin, even while the occasion was removed at a distance from it." While the leaven is commingling with the dough and the fuel combining with the fire, the baker may sleep, or seem to do so; so, while temptation, like fuel, is acting on the fire of lust within, and the evil suggestio!l of Satan is pervading the powers of the soul in which it has found lodgment, the tempter may appear to slumber. 'l'he work is going on internally, and once the occasion offers -it shall be carried out externally in full force and certain effect. 2. A man throws a stone in the air and it comes back on his own head ; men sin themselves or tempt others to sin, and the consequences recoil on themselves. The lsraelitish kings, from the period of the disruption in the days of Jeroboam, corrupted the worship of God or acquiesced in that corruption, and induced the people to conform tu that corruption and other sinful courses that followed in its wake; and all for their own politic.al advantage and private selfibh ends-to prevent, if possible, the return of power to the Davidic line, and the reunion of the ten tribes with the two. But the time of reaction arrived, and the retributive Nemesis began to work; the people who had been corrupted by their rulers now turned against their corrupters; disloyalty to God brought in its train disloyalty to man; kings and subordinate rulers perished in quick succession. And notwithstanding the times of anarchy, insecurity for life and properiy, and general upheaval of social order-amid all those sceneo of terrible con- foBioJl, there wu none arnon~ them to realize the fact that "for ~e transir;ression of a cnt. ttr, 1-16.) THE BOOK OF HOSJIJA. 213
hmd many are the princes thereof." Consequently there wae none among them to call upon Ood in supplication for relief and preservation.