Ahaz was a very great transgressor, and he was (as we might expect he would be) a very great sufferer. He received blow upon blow from the righteous hand of that holy Ruler who by present and temporal visitations was educating his people in the ways of heavenly wisdom. First Rezin King of Syria defeated him, and carried away many captives to Damascus (ver. 5). Then Pekah King of Israel slew his army with a great and pitiless slaughter (ver. 6). Then the Edomites smote Judah, and went away with the usual spoil (ver. 17). Then the Philistines "invaded the cities of the low country," and took several important places (ver. 18). Thus "the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz.' One blow fell after another, until the land was thoroughly smitten and stripped, left "naked to its enemies" (ver. 19). We are reminded by these successive inflictions of -

I. THE ACCUMULATING PENALTY WHICH SIN ALWAYS PAYS.

1. This often comes in the form of obvious and apparent losses. The trangressor who "fears not God, neither regards man," finds himself subjected to a series of adversities, which he regards as misfortunes, but which we recognize as penalties. He loses the confidence and esteem of his worthier neighbours; then he loses custom, trade, support, and then and thus he loses money; then he loses his substance by extravagance and, it may be, by one or more expensive vices - and vice is a very expensive thing; then he loses health and spirit and hope; then he loses the regard of his neighbours generally. So, step by step, he goes down, until "the Lord brings Judah low," until he has "made the land naked."

2. Or penalty may come in the way of inward and spiritual deterioration. We cannot pretend to say in what order this proceeds; it varies with individual souls; but blow upon blow descends; bruise upon bruise is suffered by the soul; one defence after another is taken away from the citadel until the land is "naked." It may be that the fine sense of truthfulness goes first; then, perhaps, the spirit of reverence; then the loss of thorough rectitude; then the loss of purity; then may come an indifference to the judgment of the good and wise; then the decay of self-respect; - and what then is left? Let the man who, like Ahaz, hardens himself against God understand this, that as he goes on his guilty way, even if outward prosperity remains to him, there is descending upon his spiritual nature, upon himself if not upon his circumstances, blow upon blow of righteous penalty - blows which are bruising and slaying him, beneath which he is surely perishing.

II. THE MULTIPLIED SORROWS WHICH RIGHTEOUSNESS SOMETIMES ENDURES. "Many are the afflictions (even) of the righteous" (Psalm 34:19). To the patient Job, to the faithful Jeremiah, to the devoted Paul, they come in large number and in great strength. Even to the purest and loveliest of the sons and daughters of God there sometimes falls a sad succession of trials; it may be in the heart and on the lips of the most worthy to say, "All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me." Blow upon blow descends upon their head. What does it mean? It simply means that the branch which is bearing fruit the Lord of the vineyard is pruning, "that it may bring forth more fruit;" it means that "whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," in order that he may make them to be "partakers of his holiness;' it means that the Divine Master is refining and cultivating his servant, to prepare him for a far broader and nobler sphere and for higher and heavenlier,work hereafter; it means that affliction is working out an "exceeding weight of glory." - C.

I. I would draw attention to SOME SPECIAL POINTS IN THE HISTORY OF AHAZ.

1. The king himself was peculiarly the transgressor.

2. The people also were transgressors.

3. Mark the special sins enumerated in the history.

(1)There was idolatry.

(2)He substituted an altar of a strange pattern for the altar of the Lord God of hosts.

(3)He trusted in an arm of flesh (vers. 16 and 21).

(4)He attempted to gain his object by conciliating the false gods and disparaging the true God.

4. Mark the consequences of all this: national desolation and ruin.

II. Let us see HOW FAR OUR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES AS A NATION ARE PARALLEL TO THOSE HERE PRESENTED.

III. TWO PRACTICAL QUESTIONS.

1. What can be done with our rulers?

2. What can be done with our people?

(J. C. Goodhart, M.A.)