God's help in all emergencies, and to acknowledge His Hand in all the mercies he had received, enabled him still to bear whatever evil God was pleased to bring upon him. "The sacrifices of God," he said, "are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." Such, till his faculties were impaired by extreme old age, was the spirit of faith which was in David the King.

Let those who would seek to justify their sins by his, ask themselves if they could endure the severity of his punishment and the agonies of his repentance. Let them consider, if like sufferings were sent upon them, whether they could still look up to God and say, "Thou art right in all that Thou hast brought upon us; for Thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly." Let David's character be viewed as a whole. Let us imitate him in his zeal for the house of God and the offices thereof, before we condemn him for the sin which he sinned. Let us remember his courage, his disinterestedness, his faithfulness as a friend, his readiness to forgive, his frankness and gene

rosity, his true nobility of soul, yet withal his humility, the entire absence of that kind of selfishness to which he might have been tempted by the extraordinary circumstances. of his elevation to the throne.

Let us think of his patience and meekness under the greatest provocation, when calamity and distress came upon him, "how he endured as seeing Him who is invisible." Let us ponder his last words, illustrating as they do that which is written of him in the 88th Psalm, "So he fed them with a faithful and true heart, and ruled them prudently with all his power."

The last words of David:

"The God of Israel said,

The Rock of Israel spake to me;

He that ruleth over men must be just,

Ruling in the fear of God.

And he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth,

Even a morning without clouds;

As the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.

Although my House be not so with God,

Yet hath He made with me an everlasting covenant,
Ordered in all things and sure.

For this is all my salvation, and all my desire.

Tracts for the Christian Seasons.

EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

THE DISOBEDIENT PROPHET.

THE circumstances connected with the end

of the "man of God who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord," are singularly fruitful in profitable lessons, as they regard both the Divine dealings towards man, and man's actions in reference to God. In order that these circumstances may be fully present to our minds, let us first of all remind ourselves of the history.

Upon the death of Solomon, ten of the tribes revolted from his son and successor, Rehoboam, and became a separate kingdom under Jeroboam as their head. This event had been predicted to Solomon; and it was also made known to Jeroboam during Solomon's lifetime by the prophet Ahijah, who further informed him that the kingdom would be confirmed to himself and his faNo. 56. THIRD SERIES.

3 I

1073

mily, if they maintained their allegiance to God. For, though liberated from its dependence upon Judah, the new kingdom of Israel owed subjection no less than Judah to the Divine King, and might equally have shared God's favour had it remained true to Him. But this did not Jeroboam. Whatever may have been his original intentions, he soon renounced the religious institutions. of Judah. When the tribes were first separated, and the two kingdoms established, there still remained one temple and one altar common to both. To this temple every Israelite was required to repair three times in every year. But Jeroboam, fearing that these periodical gatherings together of all the tribes might eventually lead to the reunion of the two kingdoms, and their consolidation under one head, and so to the destruction of his own separate kingdom, most presumptuously set himself against the command of God, and forbad his subjects to go to Jerusalem to pay their homage to their Divine Head. He excused his disobedience upon the plea that the distance made the journey burdensome to the people. Accord

ingly, he appointed two places, towards the opposite extremities of his own kingdom, to which they might go for worship. These were Bethel in the south, and Dan in the north. At these places, in remembrance probably of what he had himself witnessed in Egypt, Jeroboam erected "golden calves," making them the objects of religious adoration. He did not deny the God of Israel; but for his own political purposes, he prevented his subjects from having access to the true symbols of the Divine presence at Jerusalem, and caused them to worship Jehovah under degraded and forbidden forms.

To their great honour, the Priests and Levites refused to connect themselves with these abominations; and as opportunity offered, they gradually withdrew themselves into the kingdom of Judah. But Jeroboam was resolved upon his purpose. Finding that no respectable persons would undertake the priestly office, we read that he made priests "of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi;" while he himself usurped the High Priesthood.

As such, he himself officiated at the great