True souls from it all strength may gain,
High manliness may win.

"O God, who workest hitherto,
Working in all we see,
Fain would we be, and hear, and do,
As best it pleaseth Thee."



II.

Jeroboam's defects in character, and indeed his actual sins, were many
and great.

1. His ingratitude to his benefactor was a disgrace to him.

He fostered and used, as far as he dared, the discontent which smouldered
in the tribe of Ephraim, as the result partly of jealousy of Judah, and
partly of restiveness under extravagant expenditure and increasing
taxation, and this treachery went on until he was expelled the country by
Solomon, and driven out as an exile into Egypt, where, however, he still
carried out his ambitious schemes, till his chance came under Rehoboam.

Many a man kicks away the ladder by which he rose to fortune. He likes
to divest himself of the past wherein he needed help, for it was a time
of humiliation, and by cutting off association with former friends, would
fain lead people to believe that his success was entirely due to his own
cleverness. Even his own parents are sometimes neglected and ignored,
and these, to whom he owed his life, who cared for him in his helpless