I. THE BEST REWARDS OF PIETY. To David God gave the promise that his children should sit upon his throne; to Solomon he gave a brilliant court and large exchequer. David had the high and lofty satisfaction of looking forward to future years, and knowing that his descendants would be wielding power and exerting influence for many generations. Solomon had his reward in the "things which are seen and temporal" - in great wealth, in a large harem, in foreign alliances, in growing merchandise, etc. The one reward was elevating, ennobling; the other proved to be hurtful and demoralizing. We are very apt to look for temporal prosperity, earthly honour, material gratification, as the guerdon of devotion; but if this should be given us, it may end at last in spiritual depression and failure. God may give us our request, and send leanness into our soul (Psalm 106:15). We should rather desire mental and spiritual bestowments, delights of the soul, gladness of the heart -

"The joys which satisfy
And sanctify the mind;"

those which have no tendency to enfeeble or to mislead, but which tend rather to enrich and to enlarge the soul.

II. THE VANITY OF HUMAN FAME. It is impossible not to be struck with the obscurity of the names which occur in some of these verses (vers. 10-24). It is something, indeed, that a man's name should find a place, however humble, in such an imperishable record. But these men lived and died without enjoying any such anticipation, and it is nothing to them now. The desire for distinction is natural to noble minds; and if it be honourable fame, and not mere worthless notoriety they seek, we must pay them praise and not accord them blame. But the fact that, as time proceeds, human fame becomes of less account, and that the very names of succeeding kings may become nothing more than a tedious chronicle, only read by way of duty, may well lead us to choose a more worthy and a more lasting portion. There are blessings to be sought and gained, the value of which does not decline with the passage of the years or even of the centuries. It is these which the wise will covet, which the holy will secure.

III. THE EXCELLENCY OF GODLY ZEAL. There is one name in this list which stands out among the rest as that of a man whom all the servants of God "delight to honour" - Zerubbabel (ver. 19). To have been the ancestor or the descendant of such a man was itself an honour. We regard his career as one of the worthiest and most fruitful which even the Holy Scriptures have recorded. His godly zeal did much to carry on the purpose of Jehovah from the return of the captives to the coming of the Lord. To have lived such a life and to have done such a work may satisfy the very largest ambition which the heart of man can hold. To look back from the spiritual world on such a work accomplished must be an increase to heavenly joy. There are few satisfactions, if there be any, which give a truer, deeper, diviner delight to the regenerated soul than the conviction that, by the help and grace of God, we are sowing the seeds of holy usefulness, of which future generations will reap the blessed harvest. - C.

(J. Parker, D. D.)