nd go back to God at last, and He accepts them; but
whether repentant or not, they always carry with them an awful burden.
Shame is upon them for the evil they have done, shame for the life that
has been spent to so little purpose, regret and humbling that they
cannot undo the blind and guilty past. Repentance at the best is a
poor business when it comes in the evening hours of life. Better then
than never; but better far to have gone with God from the beginning.
That, I think, is the lesson which the wise man will find in the story
of the evil king.

AMAZIAH

BY REV. J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.

"And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the
hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man
of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this."--2
CHRON. xxv. 9.

Amaziah, King of Judah, belonged to that numerous class of men who wish
to stand well with both worlds. He was what we call in religious
matters half-and-half. He wanted to secure the favour and protection
of God without losing much or anything of the ungodly helps and
advantages. One hardly knows whether to describe him as a bad sort of
good man, or a better sort of bad man. He was like those gentlemen in
the _Pilgrim's Progress_ whom Bunyan names Mr Facing-both-ways and Mr
Pliable. It depended very much on the company he was in, whether he
showed a religious face or assumed the other character.

We have an illustration of this doubleness in the incident recorded
here. He was preparing to go to war against the neighbouring nation of
the Edomites, or probably he had learned that they were about to make
war on him. For these neighbours, like some others you know, were
always ready to pick a quarrel. Edomite and Jew were never long
without a scrimmage or a battle. Amaziah, with this business on hand,
took count of his forces, found that he had three hundred thousand
soldiers; big enough battalions if they had only had a leader with a
big heart. David had scattered those Edomites with an army not
one-twentieth part the size of that. But Amaziah was not a David. He
must needs have more men. He sent, therefore, to the king of Israel to
hire another hundred thousand, and paid him down an enormous sum of
money for the loan. Now these men of Israel and their king had fallen
away from God, and become heathen people, worshippers of Baal, foul and
immoral as the Edomites themselves. But Ama