JEHOSHAPHAT'S REFORM.

(2 Chr. xix:i-ii.)

I. The Analysis.

1. The king's sin laid bare (verses 1-3). It is easy to forget that our God, all gracious though He be, must ever deal in exact righteousness. He can be merciful to us because on the cross every demand of His holy government has been met.

2. The fruits of righteousness (verses 4-11). He is a lovely illustration of 1 John iii:7, "My little children, let no man deceive you; he that doeth righteousness is righteous." Doing never makes us righteous, but when by faith we have been made righteous (Rom. iii:21-26; 2 Cor. v:21), the fruit of righteousness must follow.

II. The Heart of the Lesson.

Here is a lesson in the restoration to the divine favor and the divine service of a sinning saint. It is worth our while to look a little closely at what is before us.

First of all, are we sure that, apart from the stern rebuke of God's seer, we should have noticed that Jehosha-phat had sinned? Suppose the record had informed us of the fact merely that Jehoshaphat had "joined affinity" with Ahab? "Doubtless it was a wise thing to do." For there is a strange tendency to venerate Bible good men unduly. The Bible does not, but shows them as they were, men of like passions with ourselves (James v:17), but, as to the trend and chief tenor of their lives, devoted heart and soul to the Lord. So of the writers of Scripture; they were fallible men —Peter dissembled at Antioch, and Paul shaved his head at Jerusalem—but they wrote in the words which the Holy Spirit taught (1 Cor. ii:3), and so gave us infallible Scriptures.

Jehoshaphat did evil in "joining affinity" with the wicked and idolatrous Ahab, but when the Word of God by the prophet John came to him he bowed under its authority, "prepared his heart to seek the Lord," and then went forth in renewed strength to do a great work for God.

What a lesson of hope is this for a sinning saint! Surely it is a needed word, for there is a tendency to despair, if not of restoration to communion, at least of restoration to service, in the heart of a child of God who has failed in obedience. And he will find in the religious literature of the day enough to confirm his fears. A very common and widespread opinion finds expression in the verses everywhere said or sung about a bird with a broken wing who could never fly very high again. Out upon such unbiblical bosh! Peter did his very best flying after his wing was broken that awful night of his denial. It was he, not John or James, who could say to all Israel: ''Ye denied the Holy One."

We are not told what heart searchings before God Jehoshaphat had under the prophet's rebuke. We do not know what passed between the Lord and Peter in their first interview after the resurrection (1 Cor. xv:5; Luke xxiv:34), but we do see the Hebrew king doing valiantly for God in his kingdom; and we do see Peter winning souls in Jerusalem and writing of the "precious" things of Christ.

In one such case, that of David's, we are shown the whole method of restoration. When Nathan brought home to David the great and awful sin of his life, he uttered the fifty-first Psalm. That Psalm is the highway over which any sinning servant of God may pass once more into the presence of the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Its steps are:Confession, cleansing, restoration of joy and power, service, worship, communion (Psa. li; 1 John i:9).