Volume VIII Part 4 (1/2)

[1] John xi. 47, 53.

[2] Isa. v. 3, 4.

SERMON VII.

Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant.

”_Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place._”--2 Kings xxii. 19, 20.

King Josiah, to whom these words are addressed, was one of the most pious of the Jewish kings, and the most eminent reformer of them all.

On him, the last sovereign of David's house (for his sons had not an independent rule), descended the zeal and prompt obedience which raised the son of Jesse from the sheep-fold to the throne, as a man after G.o.d's own heart. Thus, as an honour to David, the blessing upon his posterity remained in its fulness even to the end; its light not waxing ”dim,” nor ”its natural force abating.”

Both the character and the fortunes of Josiah are described in the text, his character, in its saying that his ”heart was tender,” and that he feared G.o.d; and his fortunes, viz. an untimely death, designed as a reward for his obedience: and the text is a part of the answer which the Prophetess Huldah was instructed to make to him, when he applied for encouragement and guidance after accidentally finding the book of Moses' Law in the Temple. This discovery is the most remarkable occurrence of his reign, and will fitly serve to introduce and connect together what I wish now to set before you concerning Josiah.

The discovery of Moses' Law in the Temple is a very important occurrence in the history, because it shows us that Holy Scripture had been for a long while neglected, and to all practical purposes lost.

By the book of the law is meant, I need scarcely say, the five books of Moses, which stand first in the Bible. These made up one book or volume, and were to a Jew the most important part of the Old Testament, as containing the original covenant between G.o.d and His people, and explaining to them what their place was in the scheme of G.o.d's providence, what were their duties, and what their privileges. Moses had been directed to enforce the study of this law on the Israelites in various ways. He exhorts them to ”lay up his words in their heart and in their soul, and to bind them for a sign upon their hand, that they might be as frontlets between their eyes.” ”And ye shall teach them your children,” he proceeds, ”speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thine house, and upon thy gates[1].” Besides this general provision, it was ordered that once in seven years the law should be read to the whole people a.s.sembled at the feast of tabernacles[2]. And further still, it was provided, that in case they ever had kings, each king was to write out the whole of it from the original copy which was kept in the ark. ”And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life . . . that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand or to the left; to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel[3].”

However, considering how soon the nation fell into a general disregard of the law and wors.h.i.+p which G.o.d gave them, it is not wonderful that these wholesome precepts were neglected, which could not be performed without testifying against their multiplied transgressions. And much more when they took to themselves idols, did they neglect, of course, to read the law which condemned them. And when they had set a king over them against the will of G.o.d, it is not strange that their kings, in turn, should neglect the direction given them to copy out the law for themselves, such kings especially as fell into idolatry.

All this applies particularly to the age in which Josiah succeeded to the throne, so that it is in no way surprising that he knew nothing of the law till it was by chance found in the Temple some years after his accession. The last good king of Judah before him was Hezekiah, who had been dead sixty or seventy years. That religious king had been succeeded by his son Mana.s.seh, the most profane of all the line of David. He it was who committed those inexpiable sins which sealed the sentence of Judah's destruction. He had set up an idol in the Temple; had made his son pa.s.s through the fire; had dealt with familiar spirits and wizards; had ”shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another,” in a word, had ”done wickedly above all that the Amorites did which were before him[4].” On his return from captivity in Babylon, whither he was taken captive, Mana.s.seh attempted a reformation; but, alas! he found it easier to seduce than to reclaim his people[5]. Amon, who succeeded him, followed the first ways of his father during his short reign. Instead of repenting, as his father had done, he ”trespa.s.sed more and more[6].” After a while, his subjects conspired and slew him. Josiah was the son of this wicked king.

Here, then, we have sufficient explanation of Josiah's ignorance of the law of Moses. He was brought up among very wicked men--in a corrupt court--after an apostasy of more than half a century; far from G.o.d's Prophets, and in the midst of idols.

In such times was Josiah born; and, like Mana.s.seh, he came to the throne in his boyhood. As if to show us that religion depends on a man's self (under G.o.d, who gives grace), on the state of his heart, not on outward circ.u.mstances, Mana.s.seh was the son of the pious Hezekiah, and Josiah was the son of wicked Amon. Josiah was but eight years old when his father was slain. We hear nothing of his boyhood; but scarcely was he of age to think for himself, and to profess himself a servant of the true G.o.d, but he chose that ”good part which could not be taken away from him[7].” ”In the eighth year of his reign” (i.e.

when he was sixteen years of age), ”while he was yet young, he began to seek after the G.o.d of David his father[8].” Blessed are they who so seek, for they shall find. Josiah had not the aid of a revealed volume, at least not of the Law; he was surrounded by the diversities of idol-wors.h.i.+p, the sophistries of unbelief, the seductions of sinful pleasure. He had every temptation to go wrong; and had he done so, we might have made allowances, and said that he was not so bad as the other kings, for he knew no better, he had not sinned against light.

Yes, he would have sinned against light--the event shows it; for if he had light enough to go right (which he had, for he did go right), it follows, that if he had gone wrong, it would have been against light.

Not, indeed, so strong and clear a light as Solomon disobeyed, or Joash; still against his better knowledge. This is very important.

Every one, even the poorest and most ignorant, has knowledge enough to be religious. Education does not make a man religious: nor, again, is it an excuse for a man's disobedience, that he has not been educated in his duty. It only makes him less guilty than those who have been educated, that is all: he is still guilty. Here, I say, the poorest and most unlearned among us, may take a lesson from a Jewish king.

Scarcely can any one in a Christian land be in more disadvantageous circ.u.mstances than Josiah--nay, scarcely in a heathen: he had idolatry around him, and at the age he began to seek G.o.d, his mind was unformed.

What, then, was it that guided him? whence his knowledge? He had that, which all men have, heathen as well as Christians, till they pervert or blunt it--a natural sense of right and wrong; and he did not blunt it.

In the words of the text, ”his heart was _tender_;” he acknowledged a constraining force in the Divine voice within him--he heard and obeyed.

Though all the world had told him otherwise, he could not believe and would not, that he might sin without offence--with impunity; that he might be sensual, or cruel, after the manner of idolaters, and nothing would come of it. And further, amid all the various wors.h.i.+ps offered to his acceptance, this same inward sense of his, strengthened by practice, unhesitatingly chose out the true one, the wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.d of Israel. It chose between the better and the worse, though it could not have discovered the better of itself. Thus he was led right. In his case was fulfilled the promise, ”Who is among you that feareth the Lord; that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his G.o.d[9].” Or, in the Psalmist's words, ”The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments[10].” Or (as he elsewhere expresses it), ”I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts[11].”

Such was the beginning of Josiah's life. At sixteen he began to seek after the G.o.d of his fathers; at twenty he commenced his reformation, with a resolute faith and true-hearted generous devotion. From the language of Scripture, it would seem, he began of _himself_; thus he is left a pattern to all ages of prompt obedience for conscience' sake.

Jeremiah did not begin to prophesy till _after_ the king entered on his reformation, as if the great prophet's call were delayed on purpose to try the strength of Josiah's loyalty to his G.o.d, while his hands were yet unaided by the exertions of others, or by the guidance of inspired men.

What knowledge of G.o.d's dealings with his nation and of His revealed purposes Josiah had at this time, we can only conjecture; from the priests he might learn much generally, and from the popular belief.

The miraculous destruction of Sennacherib's army was not so long since, and it proved to him G.o.d's especial protection of the Jewish people.

Mana.s.seh's repentance was more recent still; and the Temple itself, and its service, contained much doctrine to a religious mind, even apart from the law or the prophets. But he had no accurate knowledge.

At twenty, then, he commenced his reformation. At first, not having the Book of the Law to guide him, he took such measures as natural conscience suggested; he put away idolatry generally. Thus he set out, not knowing whither he went. But it is the rule of G.o.d's providence, that those who act up to their light, shall be rewarded with clearer light. To him that hath, more shall be given. Accordingly, while he was thus engaged, after a few years, he found the Book of the Law in the course of his reformations. He was seeking G.o.d in the way of His commandments, and G.o.d met him there. He set about repairing the Temple; and it was in the course of this pious work that the high priest found a copy of the Law of Moses in the Temple, probably the original copy which was placed in the ark. Josiah's conduct on this discovery marks his character. Many men, certainly many young men, who had been so zealous as he had already shown himself for six years, would have prided themselves on what they had done, and though they began humbly, by this time would have become self-willed, self-confident, and hard-hearted. He had already been engaged in repressing and punis.h.i.+ng G.o.d's enemies--this had a tendency to infect him with spiritual pride: and he had a work of destruction to do--this, too, might have made him cruel. Far from it: his peculiar praise is singleness of mind, a pure conscience. Even after years of activity against idolatry, in the words of the text, ”his heart was tender,” and he still ”humbled himself before G.o.d.” He felt full well the immeasurable distance between himself and his Maker; he felt his own blindness and weakness; and he still earnestly sought to know his duty better than he did, and to practise it more entirely. His was not that stern enthusiasm which has displayed itself in some so-called reformations, fancying itself G.o.d's peculiar choice, and ”despising others.” Here we have the pattern of reformers; singleness of heart, gentleness of temper, in the midst of zeal, resoluteness, and decision in action. All G.o.d's Saints have this union of opposite graces; Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Nehemiah, St. Paul: but in which of them all is the wonder-working power of grace shown more attractively than in Josiah? ”Out of the strong came forth sweetness[12];” or perhaps, as we may say more truly, Out of the sweet came forth strength.

Observe, then, his conduct when the Law was read to him: ”When the king had heard the words of the book of the law, _he rent his clothes_[13].”

He thought far more of what he had not done, than of what he had done.