We have before us here the king who made the wise choice, and who consequently ran through a very happy course. In him we have an example; in it a promise for ourselves.

I. THE WISE CHOICE, WHICH IS AN EXAMPLE TO US. Jehoshaphat:

1. Preferred the true God to the false deities; he "sought to the Lord God of his father," and he "sought not unto Baalim." Moreover, he set before him, as that which he should copy:

2. The best part of the best man's life. Not the life of the less perfect Abijah or Rehoboam, or even Solomon, but David; and of his life, not the latter part, which was more luxurious and less pure, but "the first ways of his father David," which were lees luxurious and more pure than the last. Herein he showed an excellent judgment. He could not have done a wiser thing, as he certainly could not have done anything more solemnly and stringently binding upon him, than resolve to cleave to the "God of his fathers" - the God who had called both king and kingdom into existence, to whom he and his people owed all that they were and had. There were certain fascinations connected with the worship of Baalim appealing to their lower nature; but what were these to the weighty and overwhelming considerations that bound him to Jehovah? And he could not have done better than choose for his exemplar the devout and faithful David; and, choosing him, to select the earlier and worthier part of his very checkered and somewhat uneven life. Before us is a similar choice, and we must make up our mind what we will decide upon.

(1) We have to choose what God we will serve; whether the Lord God of our fathers, whether the heavenly Father, the Divine Saviour and Friend of our souls, or whether this passing world with its lower interests, its fading honours, its transient joys.

(2) We have to determine in whose steps we will follow; whether those of the ambitious, or of the pleasure-seeking, or of the aimless man, or those of the reverent and earnest man; and again, if we choose the last, whether we will direct our eye to those elements in his character and to those portions of his life which are not the second-best, but the noblest and worthiest of all.

II. THE HAPPY COURSE, WHICH IS A PROMISE FOR US. Jehoshaphat had all that a king could well wish for.

1. A sense of God's favouring presence (ver. 3).

2. A sense of growing security throughout his kingdom (ver. 5).

3. The testimony of his people's attachment to his person (ver. 5). 4- Honour as well as abundance (ver. 5).

5. Elation of heart, great and continuous gladness in the service of Jehovah (ver. 6).

6. The expenditure of his power m further cleansing usefulness (ver. 6). What rewards of the king's fidelity were due to his royal position we, of course, cannot look for. But if we make the wiser choice we may reckon upon a life of true and real blessedness. To us there will be secured

(1) all needful temporal good (Psalm 37:25; Psalm 34:22; Matthew 6:33; 1 Timothy 4:8);

(2) the conscious and abiding presence of God (John 14:23; John 15:4; Revelation 3:20);

(3) the peace which, not as the world gives, Christ gives to his own, and the joy which no man taketh from us;

(4) the spiritual conditions of holy usefulness, the means and opportunity of exerting a pure and elevating influence on many hearts, and thus of uplifting and ennobling many lives;

(5) the hope that maketh not ashamed. - C.

I. The ways of the Lord are DIVINE. Are His ways cold and unpleasant? H we descend a deep coal-pit and look up the shaft into the bright sky, we see the stars, but the pit is cold and dark. So men think that when they commune with God, it is like being in a coal-pit beholding a star; it is a beautiful sight, but makes one cold and unpleasant. Is this the truth? No; the Bible describes God's people as having melody in their hearts, and one of His sweetest names is "The happy God." Some people are afraid of becoming religious, lest they should be miserable; but they mistake the God in whose breast there is an ever-flowing heaven. The man who the most loves God is the happiest in disposition and the most cheerful as well as the most graceful in life.

II. His ways are also HUMANE; they constrain us to love our suffering fellow-man, when he can do us no good but when we can do him good.

(W. Birch.)