and commanded them to procure two men, sons of Belial, that is, two men who were unprincipled enough to take a false oath, and for a bribe to swear away the life of a fellow creature. She ordered that Naboth should be charged with treason and blasphemy, for which, according to the Mosaic law, the punishment was death by stoning. She ordered a fast to be proclaimed in the place, to intimate the deprecation of a great calamity impending over the nation for its toleration of such a crying evil as the existence of such a traitor and blasphemer within the city. . . . Justice and religion are themselves made the pretexts for perpetrating the most atrocious crimes. The very seat of justice is corrupted, and the very sanctuary of religion polluted. The handmaids of virtue become the abettors of vice, and the daughters of heaven are changed into ministers of hell, the angels of light into the emissaries of Satan. Under such circumstances the decay of moral and religious principles is rapid beyond calculation. Profligacy, fear, treachery and sycophancy bear uncontrolled sway. It was precisely so on the present occasion. There was not among all the magistrates and counsellors of Jezreel so much of regard for righteousness and purity as in the single breast of the God-fearing Naboth. We do not hear that the innocent accused attempted a word of defence. Her charge against him was similar to that against a greater One, who was "led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth." In the one case as in the other, the power of evil under the auspices of Jezebel was triumphant, as it triumphed at the instigation of those who cried out, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" And, like Jesus, Naboth was overwhelmed by the force of injustice and malignity, and consigned to

execution. "They carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died." ..

How short are the triumphs of the wicked! and how vain the attempt to increase our enjoyments by crime! In the very scene where Ahab expected an augmentation of happiness, there was presented to him the greatest source of mental disquietude and suffering. There Elijah told him from the Lord that ample vengeance would be taken upon him, his wife, and family, for the atrocity connected with that vineyard; that he himself should die a violent death, and that the dogs should lick his blood as they had licked the blood of Naboth; that Jezebel should die a violent death, and that the dogs should eat her up, so as to deprive her of the honor of a burial; and that his whole family should be extinguished, and no posterity left him in the land. Just retribution for extirpating Naboth and his house! All this terrible judgment, though part of it was delayed on account of Ahab's humiliation under the reproof, so that it was not fulfilled in his lifetime, was ultimately brought to pass to the uttermost extent of its meaning. Ahab died in consequence of a wound received in battle; and they washed his chariot and his armor in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood according to the word of the Lord. His son Ahazia, who succecded him on the throne, came to a premature end by an accident, which, by the judgment of God, proved fatal on account of his persisting in idolatry. His son Jehoram, the next in succession, fell by the hand of Jehu, and his bleeding body was cast into that very vincyard which his father and mother had criminally taken from Naboth. How awful a fulfillment of the threat against the idolatrous and the wicked-"I will visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me !"

But a far more common, and not less fatal, though not apparently so atrocious a working of avarice, is found in the common walks of life around us; and I notice it as a disgrace to our country. I mean the oppression of the weak and innocent by the strong and unprincipled, through the medium of litigation, by the quibbling instrumentality of legal forms. Many are they who give up their just rights for fear of the ruinous consequences of an expensive law-suit; many are they who avail themselves of the apprehensions of the timid to appropriate what is not their own. Some have thought it their duty

to resist injustice, and have been ruined in the attempt by the force of superior wealth, and brought desolation on their families, and premature death on themselves.

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Let me conclude the subject with a word of admonition to the wordly-minded, and a word of consolation to the affiicted people of God. Ye worldly-minded men, see the end of worldly-mindedness in Ahab and his house. "How are the mighty fallen!" It has slain its thousands and tens of thousands. It will certainly slay, yea, everlastingly destroy thee, whosoever thou art who are led captivity by it; for "the wages of sin is death." "Though hand join in hand the wicked shall not go unpunished" Methinks I hear you say, "The subject is too gloomy for the present. We have other concerns to attend to. At a future time we will consider the subject. Now, or to-morrow, we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and get gain;' ' and to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.'" To-morrow! When to-morrow comes, time may be with you no more; when to-morrow comes, your fair form may be a ghastly corpse. Come, and take a turn with death. Behold him riding on his pale horse, to meet you in your mad career. Perhaps he is now about to seize the healthiest in the assembly. The passing bell,

which may have just tolled for a departed brother, may next be heard for you; the feet of those who lately carried his remains to the silent grave, may next carry you thither. "How long, ye simple ones, will you love simplicity?" How long will you resolve to enlarge your borders, to "pull down your barns and build greater," when ye know not but the Lord may blast all your expectations with the withering sentence, "Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required of thee." Will nothing rouse you from carnal security? "If a man live many years, and rejoice in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many." Though the sinner die a hundred years old yet shall he be accursed. Can you trifle here? Is it a matter of indifference whether you are happy or miserable? Is it a matter of indifference whether you are saved or damned? How will you endure "the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, saying, Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment ?" Will you not then in wild confusion cry to"the rocks and mountains to fall upon you, to hide you from the the face of Him that siteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the lamb?" But then that cry will be vain.

"The sea shall cast the monsters forth to meet their doom, And rocks but treasure up for wrath to come."

May the Lord enable you to call upon Him by fervent prayer now that He is seated upon a throne of mercy, that so, when He is seated in judgment, you may stand before him with boldness among the happy heirs of a blessed immortality!

THE WICKED MAN'S LIFE, FUNERAL, AND EPITAPH.

REV. C. II. SPURGEON, LONDON.

"And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity."-ECCLESIASTES Viii: 10.

WE shall this morning want you, first of all, to walk

with a living man; it is said of him that he did "come and go from the place of the holy:" next, I shall want you to attend his funeral; and then, in conclusion I shall ask you to assist in writing his epitaph—“ and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this also is vanity."

I. In the first place, HERE IS SOME GOOD COMPANY FOR YOU; Some with whom you may walk to the house of God, for it is said of them, that they did come and go from the place of the holy. By this I think we may understand the place where the righteous meet to worship God. God's house may be called "the place of the holy."

Shall we just take the wicked man's arm and walk with him to the house of God? When he begins to go, if he be one who has neglected going in his childhood, which perhaps is not extremely likely, when he begins to go even in his childhood, or whenever you choose to mention, you will notice that he is not often affected, by the sound of the ministry. He goes up to the chapel with flippancy and mirth. He goeth to it as he would to a theater or any other place of amusement, as a means of passing away his Sabbath and killing time. Merrily he trippeth in there; but I have seen the wicked man when he went away look far differently from what he did when he entered. His plumes had been trailed in