Abijah, or Some Good Thing Towards the Lord

Abijah, or Some Good Thing Towards the Lord

(No. 1745)

Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, October 21st, 1883, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the [4]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

"And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him for he only of
Jeroboam shell come to the grave, because in him there is found some
good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam."— 1
Kings 14:13.

JEROBOAM HAD PROVED FALSE to the Lord who had placed him upon the
throne of Israel, and the time was come for his overthrow. The Lord,
who usually brings forth the rod before he lifts the axe, sent sickness
into his house: his son Abijah was sore sick. Then the parents
bethought them of an old prophet of God, and desired to know through
him what would happen to the child. Fearful lest the prophet should
denounce plagues upon him and his child if he knew that the enquirer
was the wife of Jeroboam, the king begged the Egyptian princess whom he
had married to disguise herself as a farmer's wife, and so get from the
man of God a more favorable answer. Poor foolish king to imagine that a
prophet who could see into futurity could not also see through any
disguise with which his queen might surround herself! So anxious was
the mother to know the fate of her son, that she left his sick-chamber
to go to Shiloh to hear the sentence of the prophet. Vain was her
clever disguise! the blind prophet was still a seer, and not only
discerned her before she entered the house, but saw the future of her
family. She came full of superstition to be told her fortune, but she
went away heavy, having been told her faults and her doom.

In the terrible tidings which the prophet Ahijab delivered to this wife
of Jeroboam, there was only one bright spot, only one word of solace;
and I am greatly afraid that it gave no kind of comfort to the heathen
queen. Her child was mercifully appointed to die, for in him there was
"found some good thing toward Jehovah, God of Israel." As an Egyptian,
it is not likely that she appreciated the meaning of that sentence;
probably she thought it of very small importance that her child should
have regard towards the God of his people. She saw not the light, which
was full of joy. In what an unhappy condition is that person who cannot
derive comfort from the salvation of his own child! Yet there are many
men and women in such a state. They care nothing for the souls of their
own offspring. It would bring no joy to them if they saw all their
children walking in the truth nor does it cause them any concern to see
them otherwise. To see them sharp in business, or fair in countenance,
is their main ambition; but to have them beloved of the Lord is no
matter of desire. Poor souls, their own carnality overflows and
saturates their family! To some it would even cause anger and wrath to
see their children turning to the Lord; they so despise true religion
that, if their sons and daughters were converted, they would rather
hate them than love them the more. Such is the alienation which sin
works in the human mind, that it will in some instances curdle human
affection into enmity, at the sight of the grace of God. That which
should increase love has even created loathing. As Saul sought to slay
Jonathan because he loved David, so do some hate their children because
they love Jesus. Such persons make curses out of their blessings. They
put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, darkness for light and light
for darkness; and therefore that which ought to be their comfort and
joy becomes a source of disquietude. But, beloved, I think I could say
of the most of us here present, that if we did but know of a surety
that there was in our child some good thing toward Jehovah, God of
Israel, we would be perfectly content to leave all the rest of his case
at the absolute disposal of the Lord. If such a child should die, it
would be well; for it is much better to have a child in heaven than to
have one on earth breaking our heart by his wicked ways: and if such a
child shall live, what happy prospects open up before us, that as his
years advance, he will grow in knowledge, and in favor both with God
and man! Certify us of this, that there is in the young mind some good
thing toward the Lord God of Israel, and we reckon that the grand
matter is secured, and all else is regarded by us as a mere matter of
detail. We will bless the Lord let him send what he will to our
children, so long as he has chosen them to be his own, and has put his
fear in their hearts. This wretched wife of Jeroboam went her way in
utter misery; for that sentence which would have been a sweet solace to
us, had little or no charm for her. Oh the sinfulness of that heart
which finds no comfort in the salvation of the soul of a dying child!

This morning we are going to look into the little that we know of the
young prince Abijah. We know nothing more of him than the text tells
us. His name was a suitable one. A good name may belong to a very bad
man; but in this case a gracious name was worthily worn. He called God
his Father, and his name signifies that fact. "Ah," you know, is the
word for "Father," and "Jah" is "Jehovah,"—Jehovah was his father. I
would not have mentioned the name had not his life made it true. Oh,
you who bear good Bible names, see that you do not dishonor them!

I. I shall ask you first of all to follow me in studying the character
of this prince while I say, LET US HERE ADMIRE WHAT WE CANNOT PRECISSLY
DESCRIBE.

And I mean, first, by that, that there was in this child "some good
thing toward the Lord God of Israel;" but what was it? Who shall define
it? A boundless field for conjecture opens before us. We know there was
in him some good thing, but what form that good thing took we do not
know. Tradition has made assertions, but as these are mere inventions
to fill up a gap, they are scarcely worth mentioning here. Our own
reflections will, probably, be as near the mark as these improbable
traditions Perhaps the obscurity was intentional. We may learn much
from the silence of Scripture: we are not told precisely what the good
thing was, because any good thing towards the Lord is a sufficient sign
of grace. Where there is some good thing towards the Lord God, every
good thing is present in seed and essence. The "some good thing" which
is so fully developed as to be seen and noted is an index of the
presence of all the rest, since the grace of God is not divided, but is
present as a whole. God's blessings come in groups; and if some good
thing be apparent, all others which are really vital and essential are
there. Though the child's faith is not mentioned, we are sure that he
had faith in the living God, since without it nothing in him would have
been good towards God; for "without faith it is impossible to please
God." He was a child believer in Jehovah, the God of Israel: perhaps
his mother left him at his own request to go to the Lord's prophet
about him. Many false prophets were around the palace: his father might
not have sent to Shiloh, had not the boy pleaded for it. The child
believed in the great invisible God, who made the heavens and the
earth, and he worshipped him in faith. I should not wonder, however, if
in that child his love was more apparent than his faith; for converted
children more usually talk of loving Christ than they do of trusting in
him: not because faith is not in them, but because the emotion of love
is more congenial to the child's nature than the more intellectual act
of faith. The heart is large in the child, and therefore love becomes
his most conspicuous fruit. I have no doubt this child showed an early
affection towards the unseen Jehovah, and a distaste for the idols of
his father's court. Possibly he displayed a holy horror of the worship
of God under the figure of a calf. Even a child would have intelligence
enough to perceive that it must be wrong to liken the great and
glorious God to a bullock, which hath horns and hoofs. Perhaps the
child's refined nature also started back from those base priests of the
lowest of the land whom his father had raked together. We do not know
exactly the form it took, but there it was: "some good thing" was in
the child's heart towards Jehovah, God of Israel.

Carefully note that it was not merely a good inclination which was in
him, nor a good desire, but a really good, substantial virtue. There
was in him a true and substantial existence of grace, and this is far
more than a transient desire. What child is there that has not at some
time or other, if it has been trained in the fear of God, felt
tremblings of heart and desires towards God? Such goodness is as common
as the early dew; but alas! it passeth away quite as speedily. The
young Abijah possessed something within him sufficiently real and
substantial to be called a "good thing;" the Spirit of God had wrought
a sure work upon him, and left within him a priceless jewel of grace.
Let us admire this good thing, though we cannot precisely describe it.

Let us admire, also, that this "some good thing" should have been in
the child's heart, for its entrance is unknown. We cannot tell how
grace entered the palace of Tirzah and gained this youthful hearts. God
saw the good thing, for he sees the least good thing in any of us,
since he has a quick eye to perceive anything that looks toward himself
But how did this gracious work come to the child? We are not cold and
this silence is a lesson to us. It is not essential to us to know how a
child receives grace. We need not be painfully anxious to know when, or
where, or how a child is converted; it may even be impossible to tell,
for the work may have been so gradual that day and hour cannot be
known. Even those who are converted in riper years cannot all describe
their conversion in detail, much less can we expect to map out the
experience of children who have never gone into outward sin, but under
the restraints of godly education have kept the commandments from their
youth up, like the young man in the gospel narrative. How came this
child to have this good thing in his heart? So far we know: we are sore
that God placed it there; but by what means? The child, in all
probability, did not hear the teaching of the prophets of God; he was
never, like young Samuel, taken up to the house of the Lord. His mother
was an idolatrous princess, his father was among the most wicked of
men, and yet the grace of God reached their child. Did the Spirit of
the Lord operate upon his heart through his own thoughts? Did he think
over the matter, and did he come to the conclusion that God was God,
and that he must not be worshipped as his father worshipped him, under
the image of a calf? Even a child might see this. Had some hymn to
Jehovah been sung under the palace wall by some lone worshipper? Had
the child seen his father on that day when he lifted up his hand
against the prophet of Jehovah at the altar of Bethel, when suddenly
his right hand withered at his side? Did the tears start from the boy's
eye when he saw his father thus paralyzed in the arm of his strength?
and did he laugh for very joy of heart when by the prophet's prayer his
father was restored again? Did that great miracle of mercy cause him to
love the God of Israel? Is it a mere fancy that this may have been so?
A withered right hand in a father, and that father a king, is a thing a
child is pretty sure to be told of, and if it be restored by prayer the
wonder would naturally fill the palace, and be spoken of by everybody,
and the prince would hear of it. Or what if this little child had a
godly nurse? What if some girl like her that waited upon Naaman's wife
was the messenger of love to him? As she carried him to and fro, did
his nurse sing him one of the songs of Zion, and tell him of Joseph and
Samuel? Israel had not yet so long forsaken her God as to be without
many a faithful follower of the God of Abraham, and by some one of
these sufficient knowledge was conveyed to the child to become the
means of conveying the love of God to his soul. We may conjecture with
considerable probability, but we may not pretend to be sure that it was
so, nor is there any need that we should be. If the sun be risen it
matters little when the day first dawned. Be it ours when we see in
children some good thing to rest content with that truth, even if we
cannot tell how it came there. God's electing love is never short of
means to carry out its purpose: he can send his effectual grace into
the heart of Jeroboam's family, and while the father is prostrate
before his idols the Lord can find a true worshipper for himself in the
king's own child. "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou
ordained strength because of thine enemies." Thy footsteps are not
always seen, O God of grace, but we have learned to adore thee in thy
work, even when we discern not thy way.

This "good thing" is described to us in the text in a certain measure.
It was a "good thing towards Jehovah, the God of Israel." The good
thing looked towards the living God. In children there often will he
found good things towards their parents: let these be cultivated—but
these are not sufficient evidences of grace. In children there will
sometimes be found good things towards amiability and moral excellence:
let all good things be commended and fostered, but they are not sure
fruits of grace. It is towards God that the good thing must be that
saves the soul. Remember how we read in the New Testament of repentance
towards God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The way the face of
the good thing looks is a main point about it. There is life in a look.
It a man be travelling away from God every step he takes increases his
distance from him; but if his face be toward the Lord he may be only
capable of a child's tottering step, but yet he is moving nearer and
nearer every moment. There was some good thing in this child towards
God, and that is the most distinguishing mark of a truly good thing.
The child had love, and there was in it love to Jehovah. He had faith,
but it was faith in Jehovah. His religious fear was the fear of the
living God; his childlike thoughts and desires, and prayers, and hymns
went towards the true God. This is what we desire to see not only in
children, but in adults: we wish to see their hearts turned to the
Lord, and their minds and wills moving towards the Most High. Strange
that it should be wonderful for the creature man to look towards his
Creator! and yet it is so. Indeed there is no surer sign of a renewed
heart than when a man exclaims, "I will arise and go to my Father."

In this dear child that "good thing" wrought such an outward character
that he became exceedingly well beloved. We are sure of that, because
it is said, "All Israel shall mourn for him." He was probably the heir
to his father's crown, and there were godly but grieved hearts in
Israel that hoped to see times of reform when that youth should come to
the throne; and perhaps even those who did not care about religion, yet
somehow had marked the youth, and observed his going in and out before
them, and had said, "He is Israel's hope; there will be better days
when that boy becomes a man"; so that when Abijah died he alone of all
his race received both tears and a tomb; he died lamented, and was
buried with respect, whereas all the rest of Jeroboam's house were
devoured of dogs and vultures. It is a very blessed thing when there is
such a good thing in our children that they come to be beloved in their
little spheres. They have not all the range, which this young prince
enjoyed so as to secure universal admiration; but still the grace of
God in a child is a very lovely thing, and it draws forth general
approbation. I do not know how it is with you, but youthful piety is a
very touching thing to me; I see the grace of God in men and women with
much thankfulness, but I cannot perceive it in children without
shedding tears of delight. There is an exceeding beauty about these
rosebuds of the Lord's garden; they have a fragrance, which we find not
in the fairest of earth's lilies. Love is won for the Lord Jesus in
many a heart by these tiny arrows of the Lord, whose very smallness is
a part of their power to penetrate the heart. The ungodly may not love
the grace which is in the children, but since they love the children in
whom that grace is found, they are no longer able to speak against
religion as they otherwise would have done. Yea more, the Holy Spirit
uses these children for yet higher ends, and those who see them are
often impressed with desires for better things. Once again, let us
admire what we cannot precisely describe; for I have not ventured upon
any precise description, but I have closely followed the words of the
text.

The piety of this young child was every way, of the right kind. It was
inward and sincere, for the "good thing" that is spoken of was not
found about him, but "in him." He did not wear the broad phylactery,
but he had a meek and quiet spirit. He may not have been much of a
speaker, else it might have been said "He has spoken good things
concerning the God of Israel;" he may have been a timid, retiring,
almost silent boy, but the good thing was "in him." And this is the
kind of thing, which we desire for every one of our friends, a work of
grace within. The grand point is not to wear the garb, nor use the
brogue of religion, but to possess the life of God within, and feel and
think as Jesus would have done because of that inner life. Small is the
value of external religion unless it be the outcome of a life within.
True grace is not as a garment, to be put on and taken off; but it is
an integral part of the person who possesses it. This child's piety was
of the true, personal, inward kind: may all our children have some good
thing in them!

We are told by our text that this good thing "was found" in him: this
means that it was discernible in him, discernible without much
difficulty, for the expression "found's is used even when it does not
imply any great search. Does not the Lord say, "I am found of them that
sought me not?" Zealous, child-like piety soon shows itself; a child is
usually far less reticent than a man; the little lip is not frozen by
cold prudence, but reveals the heart. Godliness in a child appears even
upon the surface, so that persons who come into the house as visitors
are surprised by the artless statements, which betray the young
Christian. There were many in Tirzah who could not help knowing that
this child had in him some good thing towards Jehovah. They may not
have cared to see it, they may have hoped that it would be crushed out
of him by the example of the court around him, but still they knew that
there it was, they had found it without difficulty.

Still, the expression does bear another shade of meaning: it implies
that when God, the strict heart-searcher, who trieth the reins of the
children of men, visited this child he found in him somewhat unto
praise and glory: "some good thing" was discovered in him by those eyes
which cannot be deceived. It is not all gold that glitters, but that
which was in this child was genuine metal. Oh that the like may be true
of each of as when we are tried as by fire! It may be that his father
was angry with him for serving Jehovah; but whatever his trial may have
been, he came out of it unharmed.

The expression suggests to me somewhat of the idea of surprise. How did
this good thing get into the child? "In him there is found some good
thing,"—as when a man findeth a treasure in a field. The farmer was
thinking of nothing but his oxen, and his acres, and his harvest, when
on a sudden his plough laid bare a hidden treasure: he found it where
it was, but how it came to be there he could not tell. So in this
child, so disadvantageously placed, to the surprise of everybody there
was found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel. His
conversion, you see, is veiled in mystery. We are not told of the grace
in his heart what it was, nor whence it came, nor what special actions
it produced, but there it was, found where none expected it. I believe
that this case is typical of many of the elect children whom God calls
by his grace in the courts and alleys of London. You must not expect
that you shall jot down their experience, and their feelings, and their
lives, and total them all up; you must not reckon to know dates and
means specifically, but you must take the child as we have to take
Abijah, rejoicing to find in him a little wonder of grace with God's
own seal upon him. The old prophet in the name of the Lord attested the
young prince as a true-hearted follower of the Most High; and in like
manner the Lord sets his attesting mark of grace on regenerated
children, and we must be content to see it, even if some other things
be wanting. Let us welcome with delight those works of the Holy Spirit
which we cannot precisely describe.

II. Now, changing the line of our thought a little, I come to a second
remark: in this case LET US HEARTILY PRIZE WHAT WE ARE TOO APT TO
OVERLOOK.

First, let us heartily prize "some good thing "towards the Lord God of
Israel whenever we perceive it. All that is said of this ease was that
there was in him "some good thing;" and this reads as if the divine
work was as yet only a spark of grace, the beginning of spiritual life.
There was nothing very striking in him, or it would have been more
definitely mentioned. He was not an heroic follower of Jehovah, and is
deeds of loyalty to God are not written, because by reason of his ender
years he had neither power nor opportunity to do much which could be
written. Inasmuch as we read that in him was "some good thing," it is
implied that it was not a perfect thing, and that it was not attended
with all the good things one might wish for. Many good things were
missing, but "some good thing" was manifest, and therefore the child
was accepted and by divine love rescued from an ignoble death. Do you
not think that there is a tendency with many Christian people when they
are talking with enquirers to look for every good thing in them,
instead of looking for some good thing a them? Here is a person
professing to be converted; he is evidently sincere and honest, and
therefore he is very cautious not to say more than he feels, and this
makes him say little, and that little tremblingly. You put him a
question which everybody ought to be able to answer; but this nervous
one fails to answer it, and therefore by a severe judgment it is
thought that he is ignorant and unenlightened. Cold prudence decrees
that a person who cannot answer such a question cannot be a child of
God, and little allowance is made for timidity and flutter of mind.
Suppose the enquirer could answer the question and a dozen others,
might he not still be a deceiver? Is it not sufficient for you that
there is some good thing in him, even though he has no great stock of
knowledge and very slender power of expression. Grace grows; the grain
of mustard seed becomes a tree, the little heaven leavens the whole
lump. "Some good thing" will by-and-by breed every good thing; the life
of God is sure to conquer the whole nature. And ought we not to be much
more hopefu1 than we are, and t the same time more tender, more gentle,
more considerate? Does God bid his prophet say that this child shall
escape the judgment that was to come upon Jeroboam's family because
there was some good thing in him? Ought we not to conclude that if we
see some god thing in any towards God, towards his Christ, towards
eternal things, it is a token to us not to condemn but to commend, not
to judge with severity but to treat with kindness and care? I fear that
in many a ease harshness has wrought serious mischief to those who were
with all their hearts coming to Jesus. That harshness may have been
thought to be fidelity by him ho exercised it, and perhaps it was; but
there is such a thing as mistaken fidelity, and faithfulness is not the
only virtue needed by a Soul-winner. I would not have you err, brethren
and sisters beloved, when you are talking with seekers by whispering in
their ears, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace; but on the other
hand I would not have you sin against the child by a hard, suspicious
manner, and by demanding more of a youthful heart than the Lord Jesus
would have looked for. There is a happy medium; may God help us to
follow it,—hoping but not flattering, examining with care but not
chilling with suspicion. Again I say, let us prize anything we see of
Christ, anything we see of the Spirit's work in anyone who comes before
us, being satisfied that all is well so long as we can see some good
thing toward the Lord God of Israel."

Further, I am afraid we are too apt to overlook "some good thing" a
child. "Oh, only a child!" Pray, what are you? You are a man; well, I
suppose that a man is a child who has grown older, and has lost many of
his best points of character. A child is at no disadvantage in the
things of God from being a child, for "of such are the kingdom of
heaven." Men have to grow back into children before they enter the
kingdom at all. If there be some good thing, it ought not to be doubted
and thought to be questionable because it is in a child for in Holy
Scripture it is very common to find good things in children. Do we not
find some good things in Joseph while he was still a youth? in Samuel,
with whom God spake while he was yet a young child? in David, who, as a
boy, slew the giant Goliath? in Obadiah, the governor of the house of
Ahab, who said to Elijah, "I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth"?
in King Josiah, who wrought so great a reformation in Judah? in young
Timothy, who knew the Scriptures from his youth? Was there not also
early piety in John? of whom Jerome says that one reason why our Lord
loved John better than the other apostles was because he was younger
than the rest. I am not sure of that, but there is a peculiar
child-likeness about John, which might well attract the closest
fellowship of the holy child Jesus. Do not, therefore, be surprised to
find grace in children, but look for it cagily. Why should we not have
Samuel's and Timothy's among us? Do not let us trample pearls under our
feet by refusing to see the Lord's work of grace in children. Watch for
grace in them as sometimes watch for the first gleams of the morning; I
say watch for it more than they that watch for the morning.

Another thing we are apt to overlook, and that is, "some good thing" in
a bad house. This was the most wonderful thing of all, that there
should be a gracious child in Jeroboam's palace. The mother usually
sways the house, but the queen was a princess of Egypt and an idolater.
A father has great influence, but in this case Jeroboam sinned and made
Israel to sin. It strikes me as a wonder that he should make Israel to
sin but could not make his child to sin. All the land feels the
pestilent influence of Jeroboam, and yet close at his feet there is a
bright spot which sovereign grace has kept from the plague; his
firstborn child, who naturally would imitate his lather, is the very
reverse of him—there is found in Jeroboam's heir "some good thing
toward Jehovah, God of Israel." In such a place we do not look for
grace, and are apt to pass it by. If you go to the courts of our great
cities, which ate an thing but palatial, you will see that they swarm
with the children of the poor, and you hardly expect to see grace where
sin evidently abounds. In the fever-dens and pestilent alleys of the
great city you hear blasphemy and see drunkenness on all sides, but do
not therefore conclude that no child of God is there; do not say within
yourself, "The electing love of God has never pitched upon any of
these." How do you know? One of those poor little ragged children
playing on a dust heap may have found Christ in the Ragged-school, and
may be destined to a place at Christ's right hand. Precious is that
gem, though cast amidst these pebbles. Bright is that diamond, though
it he upon a dunghill. If in the child there is some good thing toward
the Lord God of Israel," he is none the less to be valued because his
father is a thief and his mother is a gin-drinker. Never despise the
most ragged child. A clergyman in Ireland, ministering to a little
Protestant congregation, noticed for several Sundays, standing in the
aisle near the d or, a very ragged boy, who listened to the sermon most
eagerly. He wished to know who the boy could be, but he always vanished
as soon as the sermon was over. He asked a friend or two to watch, but
somehow the boy always escaped, and could not be discovered. It came to
pass one Sunday that the minister preached a sermon fiom this text,
"His own right hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory," and
alter that time he missed the boy altogether. Six weeks elapsed, and
the child did not come any more, but a man appeared from the hills, and
begged the minister to come and see his boy, who was dying. He lived in
a miserable hovel up in the mountains. A six-mile walk in the rain,
through hogs and over hills, and the minister came to the door of the
lint. As he entered, the poor lad was sitting up in bed, and as soon as
he caught sight of the preacher he waved his arm and cried out, "His
own right hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory." That woos
his closing speech on earth, his dying shout of triumph. Who knows but
in many and many a case the Lord's right hand and holy arm have gotten
him the victory, despite the poverty and the sin and the ignorance that
may have surrounded the young convert? Let us not therefore despise
grace wherever it is, but heartily prize what we are apt to overlook.

III. Lastly, LET US CAREFULLY CONSIDER WHAT WE CANNOT FULLY UNDERSTAND.
I want you first to consider the very singular fact which you cannot
understand, that holy children should be often placed in ungodly
families. God's providence has arranged it so, yet the consequences are
painful to the young believer. You would think that if God loved a
child he would not suffer it to be born unto Jeroboam's court, and that
he would not send his own chosen down into a back slain to be
surrounded by everything that will grieve its tender heart; and yet God
does send his dear children into such places. Why is this?

Well first they are God's protest against sin where no other protest
would be heard—a tender touching message from God to let the ungodly
know that there is something better than the sin in which they wallow.
Holy children are as angels and demons, by their innocence rebuking
sin. Does not God send children there also to make a display of his
divine grace, that we may see that he chooses whom he wills and takes
one of a family according to his good pleasure? Does he not also show
us that he can keep grace alive in the most unlikely places where all
things war against the soul? The grace of God can live where you and I
would die. The life of grace can continue under conditions, which
threaten death. Some of the brightest and most gracious people have
been found where there was nothing to keep them, but everything to
hinder them. Does not the Lord permit this to show what his grace can
do? and is it not intended to be an encouragement to each of us to be
faithful? for if this dear child could be faithful to God with such a
father and mother, and in such a court, ought you and I to be afraid?
Oh, you big man, let a child shame you—you were afraid to speak out
before your work-mates the other day! What a coward you must be, when
this child displayed his love to the Lord God of Israel where all
opposed!

Is it not remarkable how God distributes his people, as we scatter
salt? He sets one of them down in each den of evil. Saul the king is a
great rebel against God; but close at his side is Jonathan: thus the
sweetest flower that ever bloomed is found growing near the roughest
bramble that could be found. What a sty of filthiness was the court or
Ahab! and yet he had for his chamberlain Obadiah, who hid the servants
of God by fifties in a cave, and fed them from Jezebel's table;
Nebuchadnezzar must not be left without three holy champions who can go
into the fire for God. Look at Belshazzar drinking wine out of the cups
of the sanctuary, and yet a Daniel is employed in his court. Even in
the court of Ahasuerus, Esther is placed to confront that wicked Haman.
Oh, I think there is never an Uz without a Job, nor a Chaldea without
an Abraham, nor a Sodom without a Lot, nor an Egypt without a Moses,
nor a house of Eli that has gone astray without some little Samuel sent
of God to bear his protest. Think over the ways of God to man and
admire what you cannot understand.

The next thing that we cannot understand is this, that God's dear
little children who love him should often be called to suffer. We say,
"Well, if it was my child I should heal him and ease his sufferings at
once." Yet the Almighty Father allows his dear ones to be afflicted.
The godly child of Jeroboam lies sick, and yet his wicked father is not
sick, and his mother is not sick; we could almost wish they were, that
they might do the less evil. Only one godly one is in the family, and
he lies sick! Why was it so? Why is it so in other cases? You shall see
a gracious child a cripple, you shall see a heavenly-minded girl a
consumptive: you shall often see the heavy hand of God resting where
his eternal love has fixed its choice. There is a meaning in all this,
and we know somewhat of it; and if we knew nothing we would believe all
the same in the goodness of the Lord. Jerohoam's son was like the fig
of the sycamore tree, which does not ripen till it is bruised: by his
sickness he was speedily ripened for glory. Besides, it was for his
fathers good and his mother's good that he was sick; if they had been
willing to learn from the sorrow, it might have greatly blessed them.
It did drive them to the prophet of God. Oh, that it had driven them to
God himself! A sick child has led many a blinded parent to the Savior,
and eyes have thereby been opened.

There is something more remarkable still, and that is that some of
God's dearest children should die white they are yet young. I should
have said let Jeroboam die and his wife too, but spare the child. Ay,
but the child must go he is the fittest. His departure was intended to
give glory to God's grace in saving such a child, and making him so
soon perfect. It was to be the reward of grace, for the child was taken
from the evil to come; he was to die in peace and be buried, whereas
the rest of the family would be slain with the sword and given to the
jackals and the vultures to tear in pieces. In this child's case his
early death was a proof of grace. If any say that converted children
ought not to be taken into the church, I answer, how is it the Lord
takes so many of them into heaven? If they are fit for the one, they
surely are fit for the other? The Lord, in infinite mercy, often takes
children home to himself, and saves them from the trials of long life
and temptation; because not only is there grace in them, but there is
so much more grace than usual that there is no need for delay, they are
ripe already for the harvest. It is wonderful what great grace may
dwell in a boy's heart: child piety is by no means of an inferior kind,
it is sometimes ripe for heaven.

Once more, it does strike me as a very singular thing that such a child
as this should die and yet produce no effect whatever on his parents;
for neither Jeroboam nor his wife repented of their sins because their
child was taken home to God. I may be addressing some here who have
lost a darling in whom the grace of God was from his youth. Do you mean
to lose the benefit of such a costly experiment upon your heart? Shall
such bitter medicine be given to you in vain? Why, there is a great
power for good about a living child, much more ought there to be about
a dying one. A sailor landed in New York one day, and he said to
himself; "I'll have a fine time of it before I go to sea again." It was
Sunday morning, and in the madness of his wickedness he went up to a
girl who was going to her class, and he spoke to her mocking and wicked
words. She turned round and looked at him with her beautiful, sad eyes,
and said, "Sir, you will have to meet me at the bar of God!" The sailor
started back, turned on his heel, and made the best of his way to his
vessel that he might get out of temptation. He said afterwards, "I
never had such a broadside in my life as that girl gave me; she raked
me before and after, and swept by the board every sail and spar with
which I had got ready for a wicked cruise." He went on his knees,
repented of his sins, and found the Savior. Shall a strange child have
such power by its look and word, and shall not your own child impress
you by its death? A father was swearing dreadfully one day: he had
often been rebuked for it but never felt the rebuke; but on that
occasion using a most horrible expression to his wife, his little
daughter in fright ran behind the door and began to cry. She sobbed
aloud until her father heard her. He said to her, "What are you crying
for?" "Please, father," she said, and kept on crying. He cried out
roughly, "I will know what you are crying about;" and the child
replied, "Dear father, I was crying because I am so afraid you will go
to hell, for teacher says that swearers must go there." "There," said
the man. "Dry your eyes, child—I will never swear any more." He kept
his word, and soon he went to see where his daughter had learned her
holy lesson. Now, if children living among the roughest can by their
tears win the victory, your dear child, with whose curls you used to
play, but who has now been taken home to heaven, ought to touch your
heart if you are not following in the way to glory! Your child beckons
you from above and bids you "come up hither." Will you turn away? There
is but one way: it is by faith in Jesus that men are saved. May Christ
the Lord lead you to it now if you are unconverted, and may there this
day be found in you "some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel."
Amen.