In the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, this Passover was observed. Sermons
I. THEY RECOGNIZED THEIR UNITY AS THE PEOPLE OF GOD. They went back in thought to the time when they were bound together in the strong bond of a common sorrow; when they were a suffering people bent beneath the same yoke, bleeding with the same blows; and they recognized the fact that they were all the children of their fathers to whom Moses came as the great prophet and saviour. And the lamb of which they partook, with not a bone of its body broken, was the symbol of the national unity. II. THEY REJOICED IN A GREAT DIVINE DELIVERANCE - A DELIVERANCE THROUGH SACRIFICE. The prevailing thought of the whole institution was God's merciful and mighty interposition on their behalf, redeeming them from the land of bondage and misery, bringing them out into liberty and happiness, and constituting them a nation, holy unto himself. And closely connected with the main idea of deliverance was that of sacrifice; they commemorated the fact that through the sacrifice of a slain lamb they had been spared and redeemed. III. THEY HAD FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD AND WITH ONE ANOTHER. The Feast of the Passover and of Unleavened Bread was one in which they rejoiced together both as families and as a congregated nation "before the Lord." Then they had true fellowship with one another, meeting and greeting one another as members of the same redeemed nation, whom the Lord had pitied and restored; and while they were thus gladdened in heart as they associated one with another, they were also solemnized by the thought that they met together in the city of God, in the courts of the Lord's house, in his own presence. Theirs was a sacred union and communion; it was fellowship with the Supreme. When we meet, as Christian men, in ordinary worship, and more particularly when we gather together at the Lord's table, we are moved and animated by this same spirit, by these same convictions and considerations. 1. We realize our essential unity, our oneness in Jesus Christ. Are we not all members of that race on which, in all its distance from the home of God, he had compassion and which he stooped to save? Are we not bound together, not only as partakers of the same human nature, but as those who have bowed beneath the same yoke, who have needed the same Divine Redeemer, who have suffered in the same affliction? 2. We rejoice together in the same glorious redemption - a redemption that (1) not only was designed and begun, but was triumphantly completed; (2) a redemption which, in its spiritual character and its everlasting issues, dwarfs even such a great national deliverance as that which this Passover commemorated; (3) a redemption which could only be (and was) accomplished through the sacrifice of the "Lamb of God," slain from the foundation of the world for the recovery of the world. 3. We meet to have holy and happy fellowship with one another, and also hallowed and elevating fellowship with our Father and his Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3). - C.
For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David. I. WHY WE SHOULD SEEK AFTER GOD.1. We are by nature without God. 2. To be without God is certain misery. 3. In God alone we can obtain peace and rest. II. HOW WE ARE TO SEEK AFTER GOD. 1. With respect to God Himself. Josiah sought — not the God of nature; not the God of Providence; but "the God of David his father." And why? David was a type of Christ; the covenant made with David a type of the covenant of grace, and "the sure mercies of David," symbols of the better blessings of the New Covenant. 2. With respect to ourselves. By repentance, faith, and obedience. III. WHEN WE ARE TO SEEK AFTER GOD. (Robert Stevenson.) 1. Earnestly. 2. Promptly. 3. Perseveringly. II. SEEKING GOD EARLY WILL CONDUCE TO HONOUR. 1. It keeps alive religious susceptibilities. 2. It saves from snares. 3. It brings eminent usefulness in life. 4. It prepares for happy death. (J. Wolfendale.) Christian Age. Let us think of some reasons why we should seek God in childhood.1. The first reason is because youth is the best time. 2. Another reason is because youth is the most important time. "Satisfy us early with Thy goodness, that we may be glad and rejoice all our days." What seems a slight mistake at the beginning may make a terrible difference at the end. 3. Another reason for seeking God in early life is because it is noblest to do right now, not to wait until we have spent most of our life doing wrong. (Christian Age.) I. THAT ANY SOUL SHOULD BEGIN EARLY TO SEEK THE LORD, IS AN EVENT THAT WOULD BE THOUGHT UNIMPORTANT BY SOME, BUT IT IS CHRONICLED IN HEAVEN.II. EVERY MAN MUST SEARCH CAREFULLY HIS OWN HEART, AND DETERMINE WHETHER THE DEFINITE DESIRE AFTER GOD IS THERE OR NOT. The desire is equivalent to spiritual sight. To help to build up righteousness is serving God. III. SOME WILL SAY: "BUT I HAVE NO SUCH OPPORTUNITIES AS JOSIAH." Have you sought them? Is not influence on relatives, friends, comrades, fellow-workers an opportunity? Can you never seize suitable occasions for uttering a Christian sentence or scowling on a social sin? IV. A FURTHER OBJECTION IS "BUT I HAVE SO MANY DIFFICULTIES IN MY WAY, THAT I CAN DO NOTHING USEFUL." Think of those Josiah must have met with. V. OTHERS SAY: "BUT I NEVER HAD ANY SPECIAL CALL TO SERVE GOD." What if parents, or brothers, or sisters, or friend never mentioned it? Have you never heard it in your heart, and cannot you hear it now? The very passage of time calls you to serve God. VI. THOSE WHO BEGIN LIFE WITH CHRIST as Saviour, Guide, Helper, Eternal Friend, and who are honestly trying to serve Him, MAY BE SURE THAT HE WILL REJOICE OVER THEM, AND REMEMBER THEM, EVEN THOUGH THEM NAMES MAY NOT BE EMBLAZONED ON ANY GREAT WORLD-ROLL OF HONOUR. VII. SOME ARE CONSCIOUS THAT THEY ARE NOT MAKING A GOOD BEGINNING OF LIFE. They are drifting onwards and towards dangerous rapids and a deathly abyss. Christ comes to save and to give a fresh start. This is an opportunity which is worth seizing. (F. Hastings.) I. WHAT JOSIAH TURNED FROM.1. From what is familiarly called "the way of the world." 2. From the carnal appetites of youth, which craved to be pampered by their gratification. 3. From all vanities of the imagination. 4. From the exercise of power, before weighing its responsibilities. 5. From false friends and evil counsellors. 6. From the delusions of the gaudy appendages of a worldly Court. II. WHAT JOSIAH TURNED TO. He fixed his heart and the faith of his soul upon God, as his — 1. Friend. 2. Father. 3. Guide. III. HE WAS FAITHFUL AND PIOUS FROM HIS EARLIEST DAYS. (A Gatty, M.A.) I. NOTHING IS MORE AMIABLE IN ITSELF, OR MORE PLEASING TO GOD, THAN EARLY PIETY.II. YOUTH IS A SEASON IN WHICH YOU HAVE THE GREATEST ADVANTAGES FOR CULTIVATING THE PRINCIPLES OF PIETY, AND THE GREATEST NEED OF RELIGION, AS A DEFENCE FROM TEMPTATION AND DANGERS. III. BY EARLY PIETY YOU WILL PREPARE TRANQUILITY AND JOY FOR OLD AGE, WHILST BY AN OPPOSITE CONDUCT YOU WILL FILL IT WITH REMORSE AND FEARS. IV. REGARD TO THE FEELINGS OF ALL PIOUS PERSONS IN THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL, A RESPECT TO THE HAPPINESS OF YOUR PARENTS, SHOULD INDUCE YOU EARLY TO DEVOTE YOURSELVES TO GOD. V. ON YOUR CONDUCT IN YOUTH, YOUR SALVATION OR PERDITION ALMOST INFALLIBLY DEPEND. (H. Kollock, D. D.) Essex Congregational Remembrancer. I. We shall briefly notice THE STRIKING EXAMPLE OF YOUTHFUL PIETY HERE PRESENTED TO OUR VIEW.1. He was a decidedly religious character. 2. His genuine religion commenced at an early period. 3. An exemplary life and conversation abundantly proved the sincerity and ardour of his piety. 4. Josiah's early piety is adduced as the pledge if not the basis of his future eminence in religion. 5. Josiah and his country reaped great advantages from his early devotedness to God. II. We shall produce ARGUMENTS URGING UPON ALL OUR YOUNG PEOPLE THE EXEMPLIFICATION OF SIMILAR DECIDED PIETY. 1. A due regard to your personal welfare. 2. The plea of relative usefulness — (1) (2) (3) 3. Many whom you dearly love feel deeply interested in your spiritual welfare. (1) (2) 4. The compassionate Saviour not only claims but kindly encourages youthful piety. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.) 1. God was David's teacher. 2. God was David's comfort. 3. God was David's delight. 4. God was David's defence. II. THE MANNER HOW HE SOUGHT AFTER GOD. He sought God — 1. From a deep conviction that his conduct and the conduct of Israel generally was highly offensive to God, and that they were exposed to imminent peril. 2. In deep self-abasement of soul. 3. By destroying the idols out of the land. 4. By restoring God's true worship and frequenting it. 5. With all his heart (2 Kings 23:25). III. THE PERIOD OF LIFE WHEN HE DID IT. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) I. AN EARLY SEEKER. Our Queen wears a velvet cap under her crown lest it should hurt her head: this eight-year-old king had more need of such a covering. The crown is a heavy burden for young soldiers. Yet there have been younger kings than Josiah. An old Norse king was called Olaf Lapking because he was king while on his mother's lap. Royal boyhood is often poisoned boyhood. The people of Israel around little Josiah were doing worse than the heathen. The sins and sorrows of that time are described in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, whose heart they had broken, Yet Josiah at the age of eight did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and at sixteen began to seek the God of his father David with more earnestness than ever. God calls us to seek Him earlier. In our Latin exercises there was a story about a simpleton sitting one evening at the river's brink. A traveller coming up wished his company in crossing. "No," he replied, "I am waiting till the river flows past." The tiny stream of difficulties between you and Christ won't flow past, but will flow on, and broaden and deepen, till it grows like an angry torrent, swollen with winter floods, that threatens to sweep down the old man who would ford it. II. JOSIAH WAS ALSO A HEARTY HATER OF EVIL. He did not hate in others the sins he practised himself, He was not like the Czar of Russia who used to say, "I reform my country, and am not able to reform myself." Dr. Arnold used to say, "Commend me to boys who love God and hate evil." Love without hate makes a mere milksop, and Christ's disciples are to be the salt, and not the sugar of society. We need boys who will hate all evil as young Hannibal hated Rome. The young Christian ought to be the sworn foe of the kingdom of darkness. III. JOSIAH WAS A REAL HERO. A hero is one who, in doing duty, scorns great dangers. He had the spirit of , who replied to the threats of the Empress Eudoxia, "I fear nothing but sin." Josiah's love for the Bible would open his soul to all the best influences from the heroic lives of Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Samuel and Gideon. Thus was developed in him what Dr. Chalmers calls "the expulsive power of a new affection." IV. JOSIAH WAS MISSED AND MOURNED WHEN HE DIED. There is a night in Spain called "the sad night": and so in the history of Judah, the death of Josiah was "the sad day." The Rabbis say that "the memory of him was like costly incense, and sweet as honey in the mouths of all." (James Wells, M.A.) 7245 Judah, kingdom of The New Temple and Its Worship Importance in Luke's History of the Story of the Birth of Christ Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant. Chronicles |
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