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have held out to accomplish so vast a work, beset as it was with difficulties and dangers. He did not trust the execution of his purpose to others, but traversing the land from "Geba to Beer-sheba," he superintended in person the destruction of all the instruments of idolatrous worship. Perhaps the evils inflicted on his predecessors, for their attachment to idols, gave an impulse to his zeal. Children often go to an opposite extreme from the vices which deformed the characters and injured the influence of their parents. They have seen and felt the pernicious effects of these vices, and spare no pains to avoid their contagion, and the suspicion of yielding to their indulgence.

Josiah left nothing undone to show his abhorrence of the folly of the people in revolting from Jehovah, and bestowing their affections on objects so contemptible and powerless. He cut down the groves, defiled the high places, broke in pieces the images, and strewed the dust on the graves of their worshippers. He burned the bones of the priests on the altars where they had ministered-thus most effectually polluting these places in the estimation of the Jews. After six years' vigorous prosecution of the work, the purification of Judah from idols was still incomplete.

How many, at the age when Josiah had accomplished so much for religion and the welfare of his country, have not begun seriously to prepare for

serving their Maker, or benefiting their fellowmen! How many, at that time of life, suffer their minds to run to waste, and care only for the trifling amusements and follies of youth! Little can be expected of such in later years. Those who have

been the lights and glory of the world, have usually given early presage of future distinction. Like Newton, they have retired from the playful circle to muse on their favorite theme; or, like Alexander, when boys, cried, "Give us kings for competitors!" True, the earthquake-shock of revolution, as in the case of Cromwell, may rouse up an intellect which has slumbered forty or fifty years; the pressure of great occasions may concentrate brilliant powers that have long been dissipated among unworthy objects; but such cases are rare. The most splendid works of genius, the most astonishing discoveries in science, have been the reward of early struggles after excellence. Strike out all in art, philosophy, morals, and religion, which men have accomplished before the age of twenty-five, and who shall fill the chasm? What young man, then, would not "be sober-minded?"

Josiah, so ardent in the overthrow of idolatry, could say with the Psalmist, "I love the habitation of thy house, the place where thine honor dwelleth." Accordingly, in the eighteenth year of his reign he set himself to restore its former splendor to the temple, which in the time of Manasseh and

Amon had become much dilapidated. To obtain means for effecting this work, the Levites had gone through the kingdom of Judah, and also through "Ephraim and Manasseh and the remnant · of Israel," gathering voluntary contributions from the people. The money was placed in the hands of overseers to pay for the services of "carpenters and builders and masons," to "buy timber and hewn stone," and to "floor the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed." The temple had not only suffered from the natural process of decay, but had been mutilated by the apostate princes, to make room for their idol-gods.

So faithful were the persons to whom the oversight of the temple was committed, that it was thought needless to take any account of the money delivered into their hands. This of itself shows no inconsiderable advance in the reform; for such integrity could not be expected of the unprincipled men who of late had the management of the temple and its services.

While the repairs were in progress, Hilkiah the high-priest "found the book of the law in the house of the Lord." Some suppose this was the original copy of the Pentateuch written by the hand of Moses; but others think parchment would not last so long in that climate, warm and damp by turns. Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan the scribe, who carried it to the king, and read it in his presence.

As the scroll was unrolled, the terrific denunciations against disobedience in the closing chapters of Deuteronomy, would first meet the reader's eye. The contents of the book were so alarming to Josiah, that he rent his clothes as a token of grief and distress, and sent a deputation of his principal officers to inquire of the Lord for him and for the people, what could be done to avert the wrath kindled against them for disobeying the words of the law. The officers in haste went to Huldah the prophetess, who dwelt near at hand, and laid before her the message of the king. In reply, she assured them, in the name of the Lord, that Jerusalem, for its aggravated idolatries, was threatened with desolations which nothing could ward off; but that the king, whose heart was tender and who humbled himself before Jehovah, should be spared a sight of the dire calamities and be brought to his grave

in peace.

We have already seen, in the life of Manasseh, why there were perhaps no other copies of the Pentateuch extant in the land. The priests had probably prepared summaries of the law sufficiently full to guide them in the services of the temple, and regulate their ecclesiastical matters; but the moral precepts of the Pentateuch, the rewards of obedience, and threatenings against idolatry would be left out, to avoid the trouble of transcribing them, and of reading them once in seven years

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to the people assembled at Jerusalem. It was required of the Hebrew kings by Moses, that each one should write out a copy of the law for his own use. This was beyond doubt often neglected.

It is certain that Josiah did not know the contents of the Pentateuch until this time.

How manifestly providential was this discovery of the complete book of the law, just when it was most needed to direct Josiah in reëstablishing the worship of the temple, and to quicken his zeal by its promises and threatenings! "The meek will he teach his way." "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant."

Josiah could not restrain in his own bosom the emotions excited by the volume thus unexpectedly brought to light. He was impelled by piety and his duty as a king to impart its contents to his subjects. With the imperfect means of communication then enjoyed, the readiest way for this was by assembling the people in his capital, where they had been accustomed to celebrate the feasts. He convened in Jerusalem "all the men of Judah, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people both small and great." The high-priest Hilkiah was there, who was the ordinary ecclésiastical head of the nation. There, too, we must suppose, were Jeremiah and Zephaniah, and perhaps other contemporary prophets. But the king delegated to

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