serves. Systematic endeavours, however small, will effect far more than irregular aid prompted by casual excitement: we must adopt into the daily management of our goods the principle of making sacrifices for the glory of God and for the good of our brethren. And all through the Christian life, in the devotion of ourselves and of our substance, one rule should guide us, even the princely resolution of the man after God's own heart," Neither will I offer unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing."

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

Tracts for the Christian Seasons.

EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

The Sin of Jeroboam.

WE are repeatedly told by St. Paul that the histories of the Old Testament are recorded for the guidance and instruction of Christians in all ages. This is true indeed, in some sense, of all history, profane as well as sacred. The sins and the punishments of our own forefathers, for example, are so many warnings to ourselves at the present day. If God has suffered them to be handed down to us, it is that the living may lay them to heart. It is in this kind of religious spirit that we ought to take up any history, that we may trace, as it were, the wheels. of God's providence moving in their unerring track, and learn how surely in all times and countries, righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." (Prov. xiv. 34.) This, however, is most especially the case with the histories which God's own Spirit has written

in the Bible. God did Himself, in a more remarkable manner, dispose every event which happened to His people Israel. All the deeds of that favoured but rebellious people, and the judgments which befel them, from their deliverance out of Egypt to their captivity in Babylon, and onwards to their final dispersion, are types and pictures of what has happened and is happening in the Christian Church, even till the day of Christ's coming. So that we are to judge of what we see by the light of what we read in the Old Testament. "Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning." (Rom. xv. 4.) "All these things happened unto them for ensamples (or types), and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." (1 Cor. x. 11.)

We may apply this direction of the Apostle's very seasonably to the history of King Jeroboam, read in the first lesson for this Sunday's morning service. Jeroboam was a very wicked king, and what was still worse, he led so many astray by his evil counsel and example, that God fixed a lasting stain and disgrace upon his name in Holy Scripture; he is almost always called "Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.” We know how widely a bad example spreads

like an infectious fever, how one stubborn rebellious boy in school will often spoil a whole class, how one bold swearer will teach his companions and fellow-workmen to make light of God's awful Name, how the children of careless irreligious parents shew the fruits of their bad bringing up, and surpass the deeds of their parents. Yet how little is thought of the sin of setting a bad example! How little men tremble at the sin of blood-guiltiness, at the danger of having to answer for the souls of others at the judgment day! With what a cold heart will men watch the spread of that fire which their own hands have kindled, and which may end in the destruction of their neighbours' souls, and yet pass on their way unconcerned, as if they said to their neighbour, "What is that to us, see thou to that!" But we may see what Almighty God thinks of the man who leads others out of the right way. He fastened a terrible reproach upon Jeroboam because he was a ring-leader.

Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, and shewed Ephraim the way to sin." But what then was his special sin which was tied as it were a mill-stone about his neck for ever? It was a double sin. He was first guilty of rebellion, and secondly of schism, two sins from

which we pray so earnestly in the Litany, 'Good Lord deliver us;' that is, he first set himself up against his lawful king, and then he set himself up against his lawful ministers.

To explain how this came about, we must go back a little in the history. The children of Israel were at first one united people, and under David and Solomon they prospered, because for the most part they feared God. But Solomon, in his old age, fell away from the truth and worshipped idols, as his heathen wives taught him, or at least he encouraged the worship of their idols. As a punishment for this, God said that he had forfeited his kingdom. It was to be rent out of his hand and given to his servant. However, for David's sake, whom God loved, this evil was not to happen during Solomon's life-time, and even after his death it was promised that his son should not lose all the kingdom, but one tribe was still to remain faithful. This was the tribe of Judah, David's own tribe, with part of Benjamin, which lay close to it. The rest of the tribes revolted soon after Solomon's death. They rebelled against his son Rehoboam, and established a separate kingdom for themselves.

The

man who first set them on to rebel was this same wicked Jeroboam. He had lifted up his hand