Manton, "is proper to the body, but here it is ascribed to the soul; as also in many other places." The Apostle saith, "Lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds" (Heb. xii. 3). Where two words are used, weariness and fainting, both taken from the body, weariness is a lesser, fainting is a higher degree of deficiency; in weariness the body requireth some rest or refreshment when the active power is weakened, and the vital spirits and principles of motion are dulled; but, in fainting, the vital power is contracted, and retireth, and leaveth the outward parts lifeless and senseless. When a man is wearied his strength is abated, when he fainteth he is quite spent. These things, by a metaphor, are applied to the soul or mind. A man is weary when the fortitude of his mind, his moral or spiritual strength is broken or begins to abate, when his soul sits uneasy under sufferings, but when he sinketh under the burden of anxious, tedious, or long affliction, then he is said to faint, when all the reasons and grounds of his comfort are quite spent, and he can hold out no longer. The words suggest that this state of mind is (b) Anxious. "Mine eyes fail for Thy word." Sometimes the yearning becomes so intense that the whole soul seems to be looking earnestly for it, so that the inner eyes "fail" with the prolonged intensity of the gaze. "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." The words suggest that this state of mind is (c) Consuming. "I am like a bottle in the smoke." Dried, shrivelled, utterly sapless, a complete collapse. An eager prolonged yearning has a tendency to produce this effect, has produced it in thousands of instances, and is producing it now. Go some bright day in the London season through Rotten Row, and keenly scrutinize the countenances of those who by hundreds roll in chariots of opulence before your eye, and on those countenances you will see the unmistakeable marks of yearning hungering souls, souls that have lost all vivacity and are like "bottles in the smoke." Another painful soul mood here suggested is Why should this Secondly: Anxious questioning. "How many are the days of Thy servant? When wilt Thou execute judgment on them that persecute me?" The question here refers to two points, to (1) The shortness of life. "How many are the days of Thy servant?" This means how few, how brief. life be so short in a world where there are such wonderful results to achieve, and with a being who has immeasurable faculties to develope? Why should such millions of the human race in every generation appear and pass away, not only before they are able to discharge the duties of life as moral beings, but before they get any impression of its value? Why should it be that the men whose faculties are the most vigorous and best trained for noble deeds are struck down in the very prime of life and the zenith of usefulness? And a broader question than these may be asked, why should the life of man be so short? Even if he live to a hundred years, how brief will they appear compared with the work he has to do, with the faculties with which he is gifted, and with the duration of that hereafter which he is destined to live? The question here points to (2) The advent of retribution. "When wilt Thou execute judgment on them that persecute me?" Retribution is going on every day with every individual of the human race. But no one feels that it is adequate or complete, all the debts of justice are not paid. Hence from all souls under the cruel sense of oppression there goes out the cry, constant and unhushable, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Another painful soul mood suggested is- Thirdly a sense of injustice. which are not after Thy law "The proud have digged pits for me They persecuted me wrongfully They had almost consumed me upon earth." This man's persecutors were (1) Crafty. "The proud have digged pits for me which are not after Thy law." Neither their character nor their actions were in harmony with Divine law. There have ever been persecutors beside those who hold inquisitions, forge chains, and kindle faggots. Men of craft and cunning, who lay snares to entrap the unwary, they dig the pits of slander, deception, chicanery, and fraud. It sometimes happens under the righteous providence that these men fall into the "pits" they have dug, Haman, Absalom, &c. This man's persecutors were (2) Wicked. "They persecuted me wrongfully." Persecution, although the victim may not be faultless, is always wrong, it is against the law of Heaven to inflict injury on others. This man's persecutors were (3) Cruel. "They hnd almost consumed me upon earth." This man's persecutors it seems reached almost to his death. Now a sense of injustice, from whatsoever source the injustice comes, is ever a painful mood of soul, and one, alas, that is very common; we question much as to whether an adult human being ever existed on this earth who has not at times experienced this terribly painful mood. Observe here— II. THE ANTIDOTES OF PAINFUL SOUL MOOD. in these verses. There are two antidotes First: Firm confidence in the Divine Word. "I hope in Thy Word." "Yet do I not forget Thy statutes." "I forsook not Thy precepts." God's Word is the immutable assurance of His love for man and His special care for those who trust in Him. What a "Word" was that which Christ uttered! "I give unto My sheep eternal life, neither shall any pluck them out of My Father's hands." Under these heavens there is no resting-place for souls but on this Word. This is the rock and all is sand besides. The only firm anchorage amongst the surging seas of life. Another antidote in these verses is "Quicken me after Thy Secondly: A spiritual quickening of soul. loving kindness, so shall I keep the testimony of Thy mouth." The quickening of the soul into a vigorous life of love to God, and trust in Him will enable us to bear up with magnanimity under all the sorrows and trials of the world. LONDON. DAVID THOMAS, D.D. "It is not as you fancy, that when God leaves you alone you live, and when He puts forth His power and visits you, you die. Not that, but the very opposite. For in Adam all die. Our bodies are dead by reason of sin, and in the midst of life we are in death. There is a seed of death in you, and me, and every little child. While we are eating and drinking, and going about our business, fancying that we cannot help living, we carry the seeds of disease in our own bodies, which will surely kill us some day, even if we are not cut off before by some sudden accident. That is true; physicians know that it is true. Our bodies carry in them from the very cradle the seeds of death; and therefore it is not because God leaves us alone that we live. We live, because God, our merciful Heavenly Father, does not leave us alone, but keeps down those seeds of disease and death by His Spirit, who is the Lord and Giver of Life. God's Spirit of Life is fighting against death in our bodies from the moment we are born. So that our living a long time or a short time does not depend on chance, or on our own health or constitution, but on how long God may choose to keep down the death which is lying in us, ready to kill us at any moment, and certain to kill us sooner or later."-Canon KINGSLEY. SEEDS OF SERMONS ON THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. The History of Jehoash. “IN THE SEVENTH YEAR," &c.-2 Kings xii. THE whole story of Joash is soon told. He was a son of Ahaziah, and the only one of his children who escaped the murderous policy of Athaliah. "It would seem that this child, whom the pity and affection of a pious aunt (Jehoshabeath) had preserved, was the only surviving male representative of the line of Solomon. Jehoram, his grandfather, who married Athaliah, in order to strengthen his position on the throne, slew all his brethren, and all his own sons were slain in an incursion by the Arabians, except Ahaziah, the youngest, who succeeded him; while on the death of Ahaziah, his wicked mother, Athaliah, arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah,' except the little child Joash, who was rescued from her grasp. So that the unholy alliances formed by the descendants of Solomon, and the manifold disorders thence accruing had reduced everything to the verge of ruin. Measures were concerted by Jehoiada, the high-priest, for getting rid of Athaliah, and placing Joash on the throne, after he had attained to the age of seven; and having in his youth the wise and the faithful round his throne, the earlier part of the reign of Joash was in accordance with the great principles of the theocracy. The Lord's house was repaired and set in order, while the Temple and idols of Baal were thrown down. But after Jehoiada's death, persons of a different stamp got about him, and, notwithstanding the great and laudable zeal which he had shown for the proper restoration of God's house and worship, a return was made to idolatry to such an extent as to draw forth severe denunciations from Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada. Even this was not the worst, for the faithfulness of Zechariah was repaid with violence; he was even stoned to death, and this, it is said, at the express command of the king. The martyred priest uttered as he expired: 'The Lord look upon it and require;' and it was required as in a whirlwind of wrath. For a Syrian host, under Hazael, made an incursion into Judea, and both carried off much treasure and executed summary judgment on many in Jerusalem, not excepting Joash himself, whom they left in an enfeebled state and who was shortly afterwards fallen upon and slain by his servants. Such was the unhappy termination of a career which began in much promise of good, and the cloud under which he died even followed him to the tomb, for while he was buried in the city of David, it was not in the sepulchres of the kings of Judah. He reigned forty years, from B.C. 878 to 838." The narrative, whether inspired or not, reminds us of five things worth considering, the dilapidating influence of time upon the best material productions of mankind, the incongruity of worldly rulers in busying themselves in religious institutions, the value of the co-operative principle in the enterprises of mankind, the potency of the religious element in the nature of even depraved people, and the power of money to subdue enemies. I. THE DILAPIDATING INFLUENCE OF TIME UPON THE BEST MATERIAL PRODUCTIONS OF MANKIND. Jehoash here called upon the priests and the people "to repair the breaches of the house," i.e., the Temple. The Temple, therefore, though it had not been built more than about 160 years, had got into a state of dilapidation, there were breaches in it; where the breaches were we are not told, whether in the roof, the floor, the walls, or in the ceiling. The crumbling hand of time had touched it. No human superstructure, perhaps, ever appeared on the earth built of better materials, or in a better way, than the Temple of Solomon. It was the wonder of ages. Notwithstanding this, it was subject to the invincible law of decay. The |