FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62  
63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   >>   >|  
atitude to his benefactor was a disgrace to him. He fostered and used, as far as he dared, the discontent which smouldered in the tribe of Ephraim, as the result partly of jealousy of Judah, and partly of restiveness under extravagant expenditure and increasing taxation, and this treachery went on until he was expelled the country by Solomon, and driven out as an exile into Egypt, where, however, he still carried out his ambitious schemes, till his chance came under Rehoboam. Many a man kicks away the ladder by which he rose to fortune. He likes to divest himself of the past wherein he needed help, for it was a time of humiliation, and by cutting off association with former friends, would fain lead people to believe that his success was entirely due to his own cleverness. Even his own parents are sometimes neglected and ignored, and these, to whom he owed his life, who cared for him in his helpless infancy and wayward youth, are left unhelped. "_Cursed is the man who setteth light by his father or mother_." But though we naturally cry "shame" upon such an one, it is possible that we ourselves are acting an unfilial part towards our Heavenly Father. And the more He prospers us the greater is the danger of our forgetting Him, who crowns us with loving-kindness and tender mercies. 2. Jeroboam's sin against Solomon was as nothing compared with his sin against God. From the first he seems to have been an irreligious man. He regarded religion as a kind of restraint on the lower orders, and therefore useful in government. Priests and prophets constituted, in his opinion, the vanguard of the police, and they should, therefore, be supported and encouraged by the State. As to the form religion assumed, he was not particular. In Egypt he had become accustomed to the ritual of Apis and Mnevis, which was by no means so gross and demoralising as the idolatry of the Canaanites, and he evidently could not see why the worship of Jehovah could not be carried on by those who believed in Him through the use of emblems, and, if need be, of idols. Therefore he set about the establishment of the cult of Apis, and "_made two calves of gold, and set the one in Bethel and the other put he in Dan_." This was the sin for which he was condemned again and again with almost wearisome iteration. He was by no means a fanatical idolater, and this act of his was simply the dictate of his worldly policy. He was engaged in the establishme
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62  
63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

carried

 
religion
 

partly

 
Solomon
 

supported

 

police

 
prophets
 

opinion

 

encouraged

 

vanguard


constituted

 
accustomed
 

ritual

 

Priests

 

assumed

 

compared

 

Ephraim

 
tender
 

mercies

 

Jeroboam


restraint

 

orders

 

discontent

 

smouldered

 

irreligious

 
regarded
 
government
 

fostered

 
condemned
 

atitude


Bethel
 

calves

 

wearisome

 

worldly

 
policy
 

engaged

 

establishme

 

dictate

 
simply
 

iteration


fanatical

 
idolater
 

establishment

 

disgrace

 

evidently

 
worship
 

Canaanites

 
idolatry
 

kindness

 

demoralising