For the quarter of a century Jehoshaphat spent all his individual power and devoted all the weight of his royal office to the work of establishing piety, justice, and (in consequence) real prosperity throughout his kingdom. And right well he succeeded. When he died he left Judah much purer, stronger, and richer than he found it. Then came his firstborn son in succession to him. And what came with him? What else but a baneful and lamentable undoing of all that he himself had done - all, at least, that his son had it in his power to overturn?

I. THE COURSE OF ONE EVIL LIFE.

1. Jehoram's reign began in selfish cruelty. To secure his own position, he murdered his six brethren; to avert a contingent evil to himself, he wrought the last and worst evil to his own mother's sons (ver. 4).

2. It went on to personal apostasy. (Ver. 6.) He turned away from the God of his fathers, from the worship of the God to whom he might and, indeed, must have known that his throne was due, to serve Baal; and in so doing he forsook the way of wisdom and of purity for paths of error and iniquity.

3. It led down to the abuse of royal power. For he not only made Jerusalem to be partaker of his sin, but he tyrannically compelled Judah to do the same (ver. 11). He employed his royal authority (and probably his standing army) to constrain his people to depart from the way of holiness, from spiritual and moral integrity.

4. It issued in national disaster. In the loss of the Divine favour; in the consequent defeat of his troops and loss of a dependency; in the revolt of an important city (vers. 8-11).

5. It closed in an early and miserable death.

II. ITS MOST STRIKING CHARACTERISTIC. It went far to undo all that a long and devoted life, all that a useful and brilliant reign, had done. It pulled down a large part of that which had been so carefully, so laboriously, so wisely constructed. How easily, and in how short a time, can a bad man undo what his predecessor, with infinite effort, has accomplished! The striking and the holding of a lucifer match may bring the stateliest structure to a heap of ruin. The deflection from the way of rectitude on the part of one prominent life, the wandering from God of one strong human spirit, may have the effect of bringing to nought the labour of more than one lifetime. How true the proverb, "One sinner destroyeth much good"! There are amongst us the names of men who have reached that poor and most pitiful notoriety of not having attempted to do any good, but of having dragged down with themselves their family, their Church, their community, to a dark depth of shame and ruin.

III. THE EXPLANATION OF IT. Two factors were concerned in it and account for it.

1. The unwisdom of his father. Jehoshaphat made one of his serious mistakes - and he made more than one - when he married his son to Ahab's daughter (2 Chronicles 18:1; ver. 6). He could not conceivably have taken a more dangerous step; it was the very last thing a faithful servant of Jehovah should have done. What was likely to happen when the daughter of Jezebel was presiding at the court of Jerusalem? Thus Jehoram's father, with a fatuity at which we can but wonder, introduced a blighting influence into the home and so into the heart of his son.

2. His own evil choice. These two things - unhealthy forces acting upon us from without and our own false resolves - determine our character, our course, our destiny. Let us be thankful for all holy influences; let us be most solicitous to bring all and only good ones to bear on those for whom we care. Let those who are young set before them the honourable ambition of confirming the good work of their fathers; let them beware lest a bad and selfish commencement lead down to a miserable and disgraceful end. - C.

I. THAT IN THE DISCIPLINE OF LIFE WE SHOULD EXPECT DANGERS AND EXTREMITIES. To know other resources we must learn the weakness of our own.

II. THAT IN THESE DANGERS AND EXTREMITIES GOD HAS MANY WAYS OF DELIVERANCE. Human agency but a small part of holy ministry. Birds and beasts, insects, elements of Nature, and hosts of angels under His command. Hence the folly of proscribing, measuring, or limiting in God's work.

III. THAT IN ALL DANGERS AND EXTREMITIES OF LIFE WE SHOULD LOOK TO GOD FOR HELP.

(J. Wolfendale.)