JOSIAH was the last good king. In his time God called Jeremiah, when he was only a young boy about twelve years old, to be His prophet; and all the time Josiah reigned Jeremiah was teaching the people God's will, while Josiah was doing all he could to help them to do right and serve the Lord.

But the Jews did not heed either the king or the prophet—they only longed after their idols. Even Josiah's own sons would not be good, after they had been brought up by such a holy father; but no sooner was he killed in battle, than they went back to all the bad ways that he had put an end to.

The eldest son, Jehoahaz, only reigned three months. Then God let the king of Egypt take him away; and the Prophet Jeremiah says that it was far sadder for him to go away a captive, and never see his home again, than for good Josiah to be in his grave, loved and wept for by all. For though God had let Josiah die so early, it was in mercy. The people had grown so wicked that they must be punished, and so he was taken away from the evil to come. His next son was king after his brother Jehoahaz.

The next brother was king instead. His name was Jehoiakim. One would have hoped he would have taken warning by his brother's troubles, and served God better. But no! He did not care to attend to poor people. He thought he should be safe in a fine house. He sent for large stones, and had great beams of cedar tree for the roofs, and painted the walls of his great rooms with scarlet. But he paid no wages to his workmen, and was cruel to everybody, and had innocent people killed if they made him angry with them.

Only there was one man who was not afraid of this King Jehoiakim. It was God's prophet Jeremiah. He told the king how little good his fine house would do; and what was more, he said that when he died nobody would be sorry for him. They had wept for his father with a great weeping and many tears; but when the cruel Jehoiakim died nobody would lament. Nobody would say, "Ah, lord!" or, "Ah, his glory!" but they would care for him no more than if he was an ass who was being buried.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who was the good king you heard of last Sunday evening? 2. What kind of sons had he? 3. What became of the first? 4. What was he never to do? 5. What was the name of the second? 6. What did Jehoiakim want to build? 7. What were the walls of? 8. How was it roofed? 9. How was it painted? 10. But what did he not pay? 11. How did he treat the people? 12. Who could have made him quite safe? 13. But how must he have lived if he wanted God to take care of him? 14. If God did not take care of him, would his fine house do him any good? 15. Who told him it would do him no good? 16. What had everyone done when Josiah died? 17. Why did they weep for Josiah? 18. But would they care when Jehoiakim died? 19. Why would nobody care for Jehoiakim?

Note—The two other Lectionary Lessons for this day are from Nehemiah. If it be desired to read the "story" on them, it is to be found on the 39th Sunday, but it was omitted here to prevent chronological confusion.