severely kind, must surely move him. "Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand. Were not the Ethiopians and Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because thou didst rely on the Lord, He delivered them into thine hand. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars." Alas! Asa's heart is hardened. The voice of honesty grates harshly on him; he is wroth with the prophet; he even imprisons him. And the sacred historian adds, "He oppressed some of the people at the same time"; it may be, because they reminded him of the oath which they had sworn at his bidding, and in which he had bound himself, that God should be their God.

A few more years pass on, of which we read nothing, but of which we must fear much. Asa is now stretched on his sick bed; a lingering disease is wasting him; at length, it is exceeding great. Two or three years he lies in deep agony, yet he never thinks of God; he "seeks not to the Lord, but to the physicians." Is no more said of him than this? Does no repentance for his evil deeds come upon him? No remembrance of his youthful faith, and of the way in which it was rewarded, flash

upon him? Does no light illume the chamber of death? No fear of what is beyond death appal him? Brethren, we tremble to reply; but still reply we must: Scripture gives no intimation of anything of the sort. He had long ceased to live by faith, and he does not die in faith. To the words, "he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians," succeeds the simple announcement, "and Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign." He died. He died, and was buried in his own sepulchre, which he had provided for the body, however much he had neglected his soul. He was buried with great honour in the city of David. He was buried with his people's lamentation. But what was all this, unless we have reason to suppose that angels received his soul, and conveyed it into Abraham's bosom, there to abide till the resurrection?

But have we not judged the case of Asa somewhat severely? Would a Christian minister be justified in pronouncing a man who had passed the former part of his life well to be lost, because the latter part of it had been, so far as he could discover, spent in forgetfulness of God? Might he not charitably hope that some saving change had taken place in him during his sickness, and that he was not so indifferent to holy things as he appeared to be? My brethren, no discreet Christian minister would pronounce at all in a case so proposed to him. But with the texts in his mind, "By their fruits ye shall know them," and

"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," I can tell you what he would feel. He would feel very sad misgivings about one who, in his later years, had forsaken the God of his youth and his manhood, and even to his dying hour gave no sign of having returned to Him. But then it would be in consequence of his own ignorance that He knows nothing

he would decline to pronounce. positively, and so he can say nothing positively, concerning the state of his brother. It is not so here. God has laid before us the catalogue of Asa's backslidings; God has declared that he continued in them to the moment of his departure hence. And thus, for our serious warning, He has illustrated His own word by Ezekiel: "When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die."

We conclude, then, that Asa's case is such as we have represented it. If so, it is a scriptural declaration, that one who has begun well, who has even done much for God, who has even led others for a time in God's ways, may fall, may fall miserably, may, in a word, fail at the last. But what were the causes of his fall? Scripture is silent on this point; we may, however, discover two or three of them.

He was tried, in the first place, by great success. People are inclined to think that success is no trial. They are much mistaken. Nothing is more liable to produce self-confidence, and neglect of Him who bestoweth on the wise their wisdom, and on the strong their strength. Unless a man watches himself very narrowly, pride will insinuate itself even into the midst of his thanksgivings; complacent thoughts of his own foresight underlie his recognition of God's providence; convictions of his own good desert qualify his confessions of sin. Idols had bowed at Asa's word. Profligacy had shrunk abashed from his presence. The appointments of the Temple had risen to fresh splendour on his opening the doors of his treasury. The ancient renown of his people had revived under his sway. The borders of his kingdom had been extended by his policy. He had spoken, and cities long dismantled had resumed their coronal of towers. had led out his armies, and barbarians had fled before him. Whatever he had taken in hand, the Lord had made it to prosper. This was at length too much for him. He dwelt on his wisdom, it became foolishness-on his strength, and it turned to weakness; in a word, he forgot God, who, as He had raised him up, had power to cast him down.

He

But mark a second point in which Asa was tried, and having been tried was found wanting. He was placed in the perilous position of having to guide and

one.

instruct others to provide for their spiritual welfare -to correct whatever tendencies he discovered towards vice or towards idolatry. Now, little as we are accustomed so to view it, this is a great snare to any The mother, who teaches her child to pray; the father, who watches over his son's moral progress; the master, who is a strict censor of the behaviour of his servants; the Scripture reader, the district visitor, the nurse of the sick, the almoner of the poor; yea, even the minister of God who has professionally to bring before his people the means of grace and the hopes of glory, the right use of the one, and the sober entertainment of the other; these persons are all of them in danger of neglecting themselves; of placing themselves, as it were, ab extra, to the duties which they have to inculcate; of losing their interest in them as things in which they have a deep personal concernment. "See how intelligently my children say their prayers; how brightly their young eyes glisten when I tell them of God who made the world, the sun to rule the day, and the moon to rule the night, and who made the stars also; when I talk to them of their blessed Saviour, and the love He bore to little children. Observe the results of my early training that well-principled youth-that affectionate daughter. Did you ever see a household so well disciplined as mine? And this district of mine, how nicely it is arranged!" Or, again: "Is not this a devout congregation, so earnest, so bent upon the