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2
Chronicles Chapter Ten
2 Chronicles 10
Chapter Contents
The ten tribes revolt from Rehoboam.
Moderate counsels are wisest and best. Gentleness will do
what violence will not do. Most people like to be accosted mildly. Good words
cost only a little self-denial, yet they purchase great things. No more needs
to be done to ruin men, than to leave them to their own pride and passion.
Thus, whatever are the devices of men, God is doing his own work by all, and
fulfilling the word which he has spoken. No man can bequeath his prosperity to
his heirs any more than his wisdom; though our children will generally be
affected by our conduct, whether good or bad. Let us then seek those good
things which will be our own for ever; and crave the blessing of God upon our
posterity, in preference to wealth or worldly exaltation.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 2 Chronicles》
2 Chronicles 10
Verse 4
[4] Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore ease
thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he
put upon us, and we will serve thee.
Grievous — It is probable, when Solomon had declined from God,
that God left him to himself to act thus impolitically.
Verse 7
[7] And they spake unto him, saying, If thou be kind to this
people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be thy
servants for ever.
If thou be kind, … — Moderate counsels are
generally best. Gentleness will do what violence will not do. Good words cost
nothing but a little self-denial, and yet they purchase great things.
Verse 16
[16] And when all Israel saw that the king would not hearken
unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David?
and we have none inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to your tents, O
Israel: and now, David, see to thine own house. So all Israel went to their
tents.
See to thine own house|-When public affairs are in a
ferment, violent proceedings do but make ill worse. Many have been driven to
the mischief they did not intend, by being too severely dealt with.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 2 Chronicles》
10 Chapter 10
Verses 1-19
And Rehoboam went to Shechem.
Rehoboam
A cause so stated must succeed. There will be difficulty, but the
end is assured. The reasonable always triumphs, due time being given for the
elucidation of its purposes, and the manifestation of its real spirit. Violence
can have but a short day; the tempest cries itself to rest. “Ease thou somewhat
the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us,
and we will serve thee.” They wanted ease for service, for loyalty. Where there
is no ease how can there be homage, thankfulness, devotion, or any of the high
qualities of patriotism? How tempted men are, who are not themselves
disquieted, to tell other people to bear their burdens uncomplainingly! The
sufferers should sometimes be admitted to the witness-box. There is danger lest
our personal comfortableness should disqualify us from judging the case of
downtrodden men. Wherever there is weakness the Christian Church should be
found; wherever there is reasonableness the Christian sanctuary should offer
hospitality. Is there anything more detestable than that a man who has his own
way seven days a week, whose footsteps are marked by prosperity, whose very
breathing is a commercial success, should stand up and tell men who are
bleeding at every pore to be quiet and contented, and not create disturbance in
the body politic? If Jeroboam had come with a petition conceived in another
tone it ought to have been rejected; it would have been irrational, violent,
contemptuous; but the reasonableness of the request will ensure its victory in
the long run. How easy it is to think of Rehoboam as the foolish son of a wise
father! But are we not unjust to the son in so regarding him? Was Solomon the
wise man he is often made out to be? The answer would be “Yes”--and “No.” There
was no greater fool than Solomon; and he attained his supremacy in folly
because there was no man so wise. “If the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness!” “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son
of the morning!” If he had not been son of the morning some shallow pit might
have held him; but being son of the morning, and detaching himself from the
gravitation of God, the pit into which he falls is bottomless. Pliny says no
man can be always wise. That is true philosophically and experimentally; for
all men have vulnerable heels, or are exposed to temptations to lightness of
mind, amounting in some instances almost to frivolity; they are also the
subjects of a singular rebound, which makes them appear the more frivolous
because when we last saw them they were absorbed in the solemnity of prayer.
Solomon himself is not wise in this matter of government. The history shows
that the people were appealing, not against Rehoboam, who had yet had no
opportunity of proving his quality as a king, but against his father: “Thy
father made our yoke grievous.” We are prone to copy the defects of our
ancestors and their idols rather than their excellences. We are tempted in
wrong directions, Folly has often more charms for us than wisdom. Rehoboam made
a cautious reply, and therein, he began, well; he said to the petitioners,”Come
again unto me after three days.” This looked hopeful. King Rehoboam utilised
the interval by taking “counsel with the old men that had stood before Solomon
his father while he yet lived, saying, What counsel give ye me to return answer
to this people? And they spake unto him,” as old men ought to speak. Rich is
the king whose old men talk in such a strain! They were patriots and
philanthropists and philosophers; they were Christians before the time.
Marvellous is the power of kindness. They will do most in life who “are most
considerate. If when the people returned after three days Rehoboam had spoken
so, the welkin would have rung with the resonant cheers of a delighted,
thankful, because emancipated, people. We have opportunities of this kind: let
every man know that in proportion to his kindness will be the quality and the
durableness of his influence. Kindness is not weakness. It takes Omnipotence to
be merciful, in the largest degree and fullest quality of the term. He to whom
power belongs holds in His other hand the angel whose name is Mercy. “But he
forsook the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young
men that were brought up with him, that stood before him” (2 Chronicles 10:8)--showing that he
understood the message of the people perfectly; he correctly represented the
popular will, and therefore he increased his own responsibility, because he was
not the victim of ignorance. “And the young men that were brought up with him
spake unto him, saying” (2 Chronicles 10:10-11). Woe to the
nation whose young men talk so! A young oppressor is an infant devil. Young men
talking so will ruin any occasion. This may appear to be a very advanced
policy, a very spirited policy, home and foreign. It is a spirited policy: but
what is the name of the spirit that inspires it? Does a controversy of this
kind begin in a question, and end in an answer? Or is there a reply? Are there
such things in history as retorts, reprisals, rebounds, consequences? Let it be
known, and laid down as the basis-principle of all action, social,
ecclesiastical, and imperial, that there is no right of tyranny. Oppression has
no veritable and reputable credentials.
Men are not at liberty to take
counsel whether they shall be gentle or ungentle. The law is unwritten, because
eternal, that even righteousness must be administered in mercy. It might be supposed
that the king had taken a most patriotic course in consulting the old and the
young. He had done nothing of the kind: he had omitted to consult Him who had
called his house to the royalty. Rehoboam should have consulted the King-maker
whose throne is on the circle of the earth, and whose sceptre toucheth the
horizon, and whose will is the law of monarchy and commonwealth. All human
consultation is a species of under-counsel, valuable within proper limits, and
right as recognising the education, the intelligence, and the political
instinct of the times; but all consultation, to result in profoundest wisdom,
must be intensely, almost exclusively, religious. Kings should talk to their
King. The greater the man the nearer should he stand to God. The gospel never
gives liberty to oppression. Employers may adopt this course if they please,
but they will find it end in ruin. We must recognise the difference between
employing cattle and employing men. A parent may adopt this course if he
pleases, but his children will chastise him, sting him, with many a
disappointment. The world has been educated by oppression. The Lord Himself has
used it as an
instrument in His hands. A curious expression occurs to this effect in the
fifteenth verse--“for the cause was of God.” Rehoboam had not taken Him into
account, but the Lord took the matter into His own hand. The ministry of the
universe is a ministry co-operative, and is not to be understood in parts and
sections, but can only be understood by those who take in the whole
circumference on which the Almighty operates; and that cannot be done here and
now. The Saviour of the world was not murdered by the Jews, except in a
secondary and transient sense; He was delivered up from before the foundation
of the world that He might make on the universe an infinite impression and
reveal to the universe the law of life and the law of sacrifice. If our
movement is towards trust, liberty, leniency, philanthrophy, beneficence, we
are entitled to believe that this is the very logic of love, the rigorous
reasoning of piety itself. This will apply to nations, to families, to
employers, to all men to whom is remitted the question, Shall the policy be
severe, or shall it be clement and hopeful? Rehoboam will be punished: have no
fear of that. “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”
You can make your whips thongs of scorpions, but upon your own back shall the
lacerating lash be laid; you can play the fantastic trick before high heaven
and make the angels weep, but the bitterness shall be yours: the triumphing of
such a policy is short, the end of it is everlasting punishment. What could we
do without such laws as these? They are the very ribs of the universe, the very
security of society, the corner-stone on which God’s fabric rests. We are not
the subjects of accidents, the changing whims of statesmen; we are not
dependent upon general elections for the grand issue of things: the Lord
reigneth. Let us be true and calm. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can get at the heart of
things; deal with causes, fountains, origins, and purify the spring of all
life. Here the Saviour is gentle in His might, mighty in His gentleness; He
says, “Marvel not that I say unto you, Ye must be born again.” When the soul is
right the hands will take to the new policy with skill that might have been
learned in heaven and that is inspired by the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ.
(J. Parker, D. D.)
A political crisis and a fatal policy
I. We see here on
the part of the ten tribes, the expression of a reasonable political
aspiration.
II. The example of
Rehoboam teaches by contrast what our spirit and method, as Christian men and a
Christian nation, ought to be at this time.
III. And that a
generous Christian policy only will effect the pacification of a discontented
people the example of Rehoboam proves. (W. Bishop.)
A wise prince will avoid overtaxing his people
The Chinese Emperor Tehou set out on a journey to visit the vast
provinces of his empire, accompanied by his eldest son. One day he stopped his
car in the midst of some fields where the people were hard at work. “I took you
with me,” said he to his son, “that you might be an eye-witness of the painful
toils of the poor husbandmen, and that the feeling their laborious station
should excite in your heart might prevent your burdening them with taxes!”
The foolish ruler and the revolting tribes
I. The grievance
stated.
1. Reasonable demand.
2. A national demand.
II. The
consultation held.
III. The decision
given.
IV. The results
which followed. (J. Wolfendale.)
Advice
Judge Buller, when in company of a young gentleman of sixteen,
cautioned him against being led astray by the example or persuasion of others,
and said: “If I had listened to the advice of some of those who called
themselves my friends when I was young, instead of being a judge of the King’s
Bench, I should have died long ago a prisoner at the King’s Bench.”
The experience of old men
I wonder why young people don’t make more use of old people
than they do. I find it fascinating to hear old sailors talk, and to listen to
their many stories of hair-breadth escapes. One Of the privileges of old age is
to be a guide to the young. Young men should take warning and instruction from
old men, for they have been over the ground and know all the risks and dangers
of life. (George Dawson.)
Two methods of treating men
I propose to use the incident to illustrate the two methods
of treating men--the conciliatory and the unconciliatory--the principle applies
to all men in some of the relations of life; and the question is, What is the
true, and consequently the safe, basis of all government?
1. Social positions are graduated. The strong man will of necessity,
sooner or later, go to the front and claim the influence which belongs of right
to his powers; and the weak man will be left at the point that exhausts his
strength. Democracy does not equalise men.
2. No elevation of rank gives one man the right to tyrannise over
another. Tyranny is necessarily associated with littleness of nature,
littleness somewhere; there may be many great qualities, but the nature as a
whole is of a low type.
3. The whole tenor of the gospel is in favour of magnanimous conduct
on the part of those who hold any degree of rulership. This is an incidental
proof of the supernatural origin of the gospel, etc.
4. Pass in review a few of the cases in which the two methods of
treating men come into operation. Kings, employers, parents, pastors, all have
their choice as to which method they will adopt.
5. The maintenance of a conciliatory policy is quite consistent
with--
Moderation in princes
The advice of an ancient French counsellor to his sovereign at his
departure was good. Being wished to lay down some general rules for government,
he took a paper, and wrote on the top of it “moderation,” in the middle of it
“moderation,” and at the bottom “moderation.” (J. Trapp.)
Taking counsel of the young
So did our King Richard II., to his utter ruin. So Xerxes despised
the grave counsel of his uncle Artabanus, and was led wholly by the young Mardonius
to the loss of all. The like is reported of Dionysius, king of Sicily; Croesus,
king of Lydia; Nero, emperor of Rome; James that reigned in Scotland in Edward
IV’s time; and Lantrer, of whom it is reported that he lost the kingdom of
Naples from the French king, his master, and all that he had in Italy, because
he would not ask nor follow the advice of those who were wiser than himself. (J.
Trapp.)
Pampered in youth, ruined in prime
Many a bright scriptural character is set before us for our
example; this man is set before us for our warning. There were two things that
contributed to make his life a failure.
I. He was brought
up in the lap of luxury. His father lived in a style of magnificence that has
never been equalled. In the midst of this was Rehoboam’s youth and boyhood
spent. Nothing could have been morally worse for him than that. I ask the head
of some large academy, “What is the chief cause of the ruin of many lads
belonging to respectable families?” and he whispers, “Too much money,” The president
of one of the largest educational institutions in America stated that he
believed the surest protection to young men against the perils of opening life
was poverty. The being free from the necessity of working for a living has been
the worst thing in the lot of many a young man. I have personally known youths
who were unfortunate enough to start life with a patrimony of £200 a year, and
they never came to anything. In the life of Mr. Nasmyth he says: “I often
observe in shop windows every detail of model ships and model steam-engines,
supplied ready-made for those who are said to be of a mechanical turn. Thus the
vital uses of resourcefulness are done away with and the sham exhibition of
mechanical genius is paraded before you by the young impostors, the result, for
the most part, of too free a supply of pocket-money. I have known too many
instances of parents being led, by such false evidence of constructive skill,
to apprentice their sons to some engineering firm and after paying vast sums,
finding out that the pretender comes out of the engineering shop with no other
practical accomplishment than that of glove-wearing and cigar-smoking.” The
connection between Rehoboam and kid gloves may not at first be apparent, and
yet there is a good deal in it, for had he been brought up less luxuriously,
had he known something in his early days of real hard work, he might have
turned out a more sensible
and successful man.
II. His refusal of
the advice of men who were older and wiser than himself. Evil companionship
proved his destruction. Well might he have said, “Save me from my friends.”
Their advice may have been meant for the best, yet like the bear which from
friendly motives, tried his paw to remove a fly from his master’s face, they
did more harm than good. Nothing tells upon our life more distinctly than our
early choice of companions. We take the colour of the society we keep, as the
frogs of Ceylon do that of the leaf on which they sit. Be slow to form your
friendships. Have nothing to do with any one--no matter how smart and plausible
he be--who jests at sacred things. Be certain you will get no good from one who
wants to shake you out of what he calls your old-fashioned principles. Never
make a friend of one who avows himself an unbeliever. The fear of God is the
root of all true nobleness of character, said a French monarch, when once asked
to give his consent to a dishonourable treaty. “The blood of Charlemagne is in
my veins; and who dares to propose this thing to me?” Some of you young men
have a pedigree still more worthy to glory in. We want no Rehoboams amongst us.
We want the sons to be better than their fathers. (J. T. Davidson.)
The folly of self-will
Dr. Anderson, of the American Board, told me that a young man once
came to the mission-house in Boston as a candidate for the foreign mission
field. Dr. Anderson invited him to spend the night with him in Roxbury, and as
they were walking together, the young man suddenly said, “I prefer to walk on
the right side.” Dr. Anderson said to him, “May I ask why you walk on the right
side? Are you deaf in one ear?” “No,” said the young man, “but I prefer to walk
on the right side, and I always will walk on the right side.” That young man
was not sent abroad. It was evident that a man who was bent on having his own
way, without giving reasons, would be likely to make mischief, and his right
side would be pretty sure to be the wrong side. (H. H. Jessup.)
The mystery of Divine working
I. Events of
history controlled and directed to accomplish Divine purposes.
II. In the
accomplishment of Divine purposes men act as free agents.
III. Men thus acting
as free agents are responsible for them actions. (J. Wolfendale.)
Paroxysms in history
Nature has her paroxysms. Sir Roderick Murchison affirms that by
no possible extension of gradual and insensible causes could huge masses of
Tertiary rocks have been so thrown over as to pass under the older rocks of the
Alps, out of which they were formed. That operation, he says, must have been
paroxysmal, and no slow process could have accomplished it. The crust and
outline of the earth are, in short, full of evidences that many of the ruptures
and overthrows of the strata, as well as great denudations, could not even in
millions of years have been produced by agencies like those of our times. (Scientific
Illustrations.)
.
And Rehoboam went to Shechem.
Rehoboam
A cause so stated must succeed. There will be difficulty, but the
end is assured. The reasonable always triumphs, due time being given for the
elucidation of its purposes, and the manifestation of its real spirit. Violence
can have but a short day; the tempest cries itself to rest. “Ease thou somewhat
the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us,
and we will serve thee.” They wanted ease for service, for loyalty. Where there
is no ease how can there be homage, thankfulness, devotion, or any of the high
qualities of patriotism? How tempted men are, who are not themselves
disquieted, to tell other people to bear their burdens uncomplainingly! The
sufferers should sometimes be admitted to the witness-box. There is danger lest
our personal comfortableness should disqualify us from judging the case of
downtrodden men. Wherever there is weakness the Christian Church should be
found; wherever there is reasonableness the Christian sanctuary should offer
hospitality. Is there anything more detestable than that a man who has his own
way seven days a week, whose footsteps are marked by prosperity, whose very
breathing is a commercial success, should stand up and tell men who are
bleeding at every pore to be quiet and contented, and not create disturbance in
the body politic? If Jeroboam had come with a petition conceived in another
tone it ought to have been rejected; it would have been irrational, violent,
contemptuous; but the reasonableness of the request will ensure its victory in
the long run. How easy it is to think of Rehoboam as the foolish son of a wise
father! But are we not unjust to the son in so regarding him? Was Solomon the
wise man he is often made out to be? The answer would be “Yes”--and “No.” There
was no greater fool than Solomon; and he attained his supremacy in folly
because there was no man so wise. “If the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness!” “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son
of the morning!” If he had not been son of the morning some shallow pit might
have held him; but being son of the morning, and detaching himself from the
gravitation of God, the pit into which he falls is bottomless. Pliny says no
man can be always wise. That is true philosophically and experimentally; for
all men have vulnerable heels, or are exposed to temptations to lightness of
mind, amounting in some instances almost to frivolity; they are also the
subjects of a singular rebound, which makes them appear the more frivolous
because when we last saw them they were absorbed in the solemnity of prayer.
Solomon himself is not wise in this matter of government. The history shows
that the people were appealing, not against Rehoboam, who had yet had no
opportunity of proving his quality as a king, but against his father: “Thy
father made our yoke grievous.” We are prone to copy the defects of our
ancestors and their idols rather than their excellences. We are tempted in
wrong directions, Folly has often more charms for us than wisdom. Rehoboam made
a cautious reply, and therein, he began, well; he said to the petitioners,”Come
again unto me after three days.” This looked hopeful. King Rehoboam utilised
the interval by taking “counsel with the old men that had stood before Solomon
his father while he yet lived, saying, What counsel give ye me to return answer
to this people? And they spake unto him,” as old men ought to speak. Rich is
the king whose old men talk in such a strain! They were patriots and
philanthropists and philosophers; they were Christians before the time.
Marvellous is the power of kindness. They will do most in life who “are most
considerate. If when the people returned after three days Rehoboam had spoken
so, the welkin would have rung with the resonant cheers of a delighted,
thankful, because emancipated, people. We have opportunities of this kind: let
every man know that in proportion to his kindness will be the quality and the
durableness of his influence. Kindness is not weakness. It takes Omnipotence to
be merciful, in the largest degree and fullest quality of the term. He to whom
power belongs holds in His other hand the angel whose name is Mercy. “But he
forsook the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young
men that were brought up with him, that stood before him” (2 Chronicles 10:8)--showing that he
understood the message of the people perfectly; he correctly represented the
popular will, and therefore he increased his own responsibility, because he was
not the victim of ignorance. “And the young men that were brought up with him
spake unto him, saying” (2 Chronicles 10:10-11). Woe to the
nation whose young men talk so! A young oppressor is an infant devil. Young men
talking so will ruin any occasion. This may appear to be a very advanced
policy, a very spirited policy, home and foreign. It is a spirited policy: but
what is the name of the spirit that inspires it? Does a controversy of this
kind begin in a question, and end in an answer? Or is there a reply? Are there
such things in history as retorts, reprisals, rebounds, consequences? Let it be
known, and laid down as the basis-principle of all action, social,
ecclesiastical, and imperial, that there is no right of tyranny. Oppression has
no veritable and reputable credentials.
Men are not at liberty to take
counsel whether they shall be gentle or ungentle. The law is unwritten, because
eternal, that even righteousness must be administered in mercy. It might be
supposed that the king had taken a most patriotic course in consulting the old
and the young. He had done nothing of the kind: he had omitted to consult Him
who had called his house to the royalty. Rehoboam should have consulted the
King-maker whose throne is on the circle of the earth, and whose sceptre
toucheth the horizon, and whose will is the law of monarchy and commonwealth.
All human consultation is a species of under-counsel, valuable within proper
limits, and right as recognising the education, the intelligence, and the political
instinct of the times; but all consultation, to result in profoundest wisdom,
must be intensely, almost exclusively, religious. Kings should talk to their
King. The greater the man the nearer should he stand to God. The gospel never
gives liberty to oppression. Employers may adopt this course if they please,
but they will find it end in ruin. We must recognise the difference between
employing cattle and employing men. A parent may adopt this course if he
pleases, but his children will chastise him, sting him, with many a
disappointment. The world has been educated by oppression. The Lord Himself has
used it as an
instrument in His hands. A curious expression occurs to this effect in the
fifteenth verse--“for the cause was of God.” Rehoboam had not taken Him into
account, but the Lord took the matter into His own hand. The ministry of the
universe is a ministry co-operative, and is not to be understood in parts and
sections, but can only be understood by those who take in the whole
circumference on which the Almighty operates; and that cannot be done here and
now. The Saviour of the world was not murdered by the Jews, except in a
secondary and transient sense; He was delivered up from before the foundation
of the world that He might make on the universe an infinite impression and
reveal to the universe the law of life and the law of sacrifice. If our
movement is towards trust, liberty, leniency, philanthrophy, beneficence, we
are entitled to believe that this is the very logic of love, the rigorous reasoning
of piety itself. This will apply to nations, to families, to employers, to all
men to whom is remitted the question, Shall the policy be severe, or shall it
be clement and hopeful? Rehoboam will be punished: have no fear of that. “With
what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” You can make your
whips thongs of scorpions, but upon your own back shall the lacerating lash be
laid; you can play the fantastic trick before high heaven and make the angels
weep, but the bitterness shall be yours: the triumphing of such a policy is
short, the end of it is everlasting punishment. What could we do without such
laws as these? They are the very ribs of the universe, the very security of
society, the corner-stone on which God’s fabric rests. We are not the subjects
of accidents, the changing whims of statesmen; we are not dependent upon
general elections for the grand issue of things: the Lord reigneth. Let us be
true and calm. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can get at the heart of things; deal with causes,
fountains, origins, and purify the spring of all life. Here the Saviour is
gentle in His might, mighty in His gentleness; He says, “Marvel not that I say
unto you, Ye must be born again.” When the soul is right the hands will take to
the new policy with skill that might have been learned in heaven and that is
inspired by the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. (J. Parker, D. D.)
A political crisis and a fatal policy
I. We see here on
the part of the ten tribes, the expression of a reasonable political aspiration.
II. The example of
Rehoboam teaches by contrast what our spirit and method, as Christian men and a
Christian nation, ought to be at this time.
III. And that a
generous Christian policy only will effect the pacification of a discontented
people the example of Rehoboam proves. (W. Bishop.)
A wise prince will avoid overtaxing his people
The Chinese Emperor Tehou set out on a journey to visit the vast
provinces of his empire, accompanied by his eldest son. One day he stopped his
car in the midst of some fields where the people were hard at work. “I took you
with me,” said he to his son, “that you might be an eye-witness of the painful
toils of the poor husbandmen, and that the feeling their laborious station
should excite in your heart might prevent your burdening them with taxes!”
The foolish ruler and the revolting tribes
I. The grievance
stated.
1. Reasonable demand.
2. A national demand.
II. The
consultation held.
III. The decision
given.
IV. The results
which followed. (J. Wolfendale.)
Advice
Judge Buller, when in company of a young gentleman of sixteen,
cautioned him against being led astray by the example or persuasion of others,
and said: “If I had listened to the advice of some of those who called
themselves my friends when I was young, instead of being a judge of the King’s
Bench, I should have died long ago a prisoner at the King’s Bench.”
The experience of old men
I wonder why young people don’t make more use of old people
than they do. I find it fascinating to hear old sailors talk, and to listen to
their many stories of hair-breadth escapes. One Of the privileges of old age is
to be a guide to the young. Young men should take warning and instruction from
old men, for they have been over the ground and know all the risks and dangers
of life. (George Dawson.)
Two methods of treating men
I propose to use the incident to illustrate the two methods
of treating men--the conciliatory and the unconciliatory--the principle applies
to all men in some of the relations of life; and the question is, What is the
true, and consequently the safe, basis of all government?
1. Social positions are graduated. The strong man will of necessity,
sooner or later, go to the front and claim the influence which belongs of right
to his powers; and the weak man will be left at the point that exhausts his
strength. Democracy does not equalise men.
2. No elevation of rank gives one man the right to tyrannise over
another. Tyranny is necessarily associated with littleness of nature,
littleness somewhere; there may be many great qualities, but the nature as a
whole is of a low type.
3. The whole tenor of the gospel is in favour of magnanimous conduct
on the part of those who hold any degree of rulership. This is an incidental
proof of the supernatural origin of the gospel, etc.
4. Pass in review a few of the cases in which the two methods of
treating men come into operation. Kings, employers, parents, pastors, all have
their choice as to which method they will adopt.
5. The maintenance of a conciliatory policy is quite consistent with--
Moderation in princes
The advice of an ancient French counsellor to his sovereign at his
departure was good. Being wished to lay down some general rules for government,
he took a paper, and wrote on the top of it “moderation,” in the middle of it
“moderation,” and at the bottom “moderation.” (J. Trapp.)
Taking counsel of the young
So did our King Richard II., to his utter ruin. So Xerxes despised
the grave counsel of his uncle Artabanus, and was led wholly by the young
Mardonius to the loss of all. The like is reported of Dionysius, king of
Sicily; Croesus, king of Lydia; Nero, emperor of Rome; James that reigned in
Scotland in Edward IV’s time; and Lantrer, of whom it is reported that he lost
the kingdom of Naples from the French king, his master, and all that he had in
Italy, because he would not ask nor follow the advice of those who were wiser
than himself. (J. Trapp.)
Pampered in youth, ruined in prime
Many a bright scriptural character is set before us for our
example; this man is set before us for our warning. There were two things that
contributed to make his life a failure.
I. He was brought
up in the lap of luxury. His father lived in a style of magnificence that has
never been equalled. In the midst of this was Rehoboam’s youth and boyhood spent.
Nothing could have been morally worse for him than that. I ask the head of some
large academy, “What is the chief cause of the ruin of many lads belonging to
respectable families?” and he whispers, “Too much money,” The president of one
of the largest educational institutions in America stated that he believed the
surest protection to young men against the perils of opening life was poverty.
The being free from the necessity of working for a living has been the worst
thing in the lot of many a young man. I have personally known youths who were
unfortunate enough to start life with a patrimony of £200 a year, and they
never came to anything. In the life of Mr. Nasmyth he says: “I often observe in
shop windows every detail of model ships and model steam-engines, supplied
ready-made for those who are said to be of a mechanical turn. Thus the vital
uses of resourcefulness are done away with and the sham exhibition of
mechanical genius is paraded before you by the young impostors, the result, for
the most part, of too free a supply of pocket-money. I have known too many
instances of parents being led, by such false evidence of constructive skill,
to apprentice their sons to some engineering firm and after paying vast sums,
finding out that the pretender comes out of the engineering shop with no other
practical accomplishment than that of glove-wearing and cigar-smoking.” The
connection between Rehoboam and kid gloves may not at first be apparent, and
yet there is a good deal in it, for had he been brought up less luxuriously,
had he known something in his early days of real hard work, he might have
turned out a more sensible
and successful man.
II. His refusal of
the advice of men who were older and wiser than himself. Evil companionship
proved his destruction. Well might he have said, “Save me from my friends.”
Their advice may have been meant for the best, yet like the bear which from
friendly motives, tried his paw to remove a fly from his master’s face, they
did more harm than good. Nothing tells upon our life more distinctly than our
early choice of companions. We take the colour of the society we keep, as the
frogs of Ceylon do that of the leaf on which they sit. Be slow to form your
friendships. Have nothing to do with any one--no matter how smart and plausible
he be--who jests at sacred things. Be certain you will get no good from one who
wants to shake you out of what he calls your old-fashioned principles. Never
make a friend of one who avows himself an unbeliever. The fear of God is the
root of all true nobleness of character, said a French monarch, when once asked
to give his consent to a dishonourable treaty. “The blood of Charlemagne is in
my veins; and who dares to propose this thing to me?” Some of you young men
have a pedigree still more worthy to glory in. We want no Rehoboams amongst us.
We want the sons to be better than their fathers. (J. T. Davidson.)
The folly of self-will
Dr. Anderson, of the American Board, told me that a young man once
came to the mission-house in Boston as a candidate for the foreign mission
field. Dr. Anderson invited him to spend the night with him in Roxbury, and as
they were walking together, the young man suddenly said, “I prefer to walk on
the right side.” Dr. Anderson said to him, “May I ask why you walk on the right
side? Are you deaf in one ear?” “No,” said the young man, “but I prefer to walk
on the right side, and I always will walk on the right side.” That young man
was not sent abroad. It was evident that a man who was bent on having his own
way, without giving reasons, would be likely to make mischief, and his right
side would be pretty sure to be the wrong side. (H. H. Jessup.)
The mystery of Divine working
I. Events of
history controlled and directed to accomplish Divine purposes.
II. In the
accomplishment of Divine purposes men act as free agents.
III. Men thus acting
as free agents are responsible for them actions. (J. Wolfendale.)
Paroxysms in history
Nature has her paroxysms. Sir Roderick Murchison affirms that by
no possible extension of gradual and insensible causes could huge masses of
Tertiary rocks have been so thrown over as to pass under the older rocks of the
Alps, out of which they were formed. That operation, he says, must have been
paroxysmal, and no slow process could have accomplished it. The crust and
outline of the earth are, in short, full of evidences that many of the ruptures
and overthrows of the strata, as well as great denudations, could not even in
millions of years have been produced by agencies like those of our times. (Scientific
Illustrations.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》