The danger of success is very real in the case of fallen creatures, even though they be children of God, and devoted in their measure. The Lord's word to Baruch, " Seekest thou great things for thyself; seek them not," may well be pressed upon every one of our hearts. We cannot be trusted. It is humiliating, but it is true; and because true, it becomes intensely important that Christ and His glory be alone before our souls in any service done or attempted for God.

King Uzziah, as he is called in 2 Chronicles 26, or Azariah, as his name is given in 2 Kings 14:21 and 15:1-7, is a striking case in point. He began well but ended badly. Succeeding his father Amaziah, at the tender age of sixteen years, he from the beginning sought the Lord,'' and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper" (2 Chron. 26:5). But we learn that there was a man of God who had a commanding influence over him for good, namely, "Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God."We are told that in his days all went well with Uzziah. Evidently he was the kind of a man who needed a check and a helpful counselor, and he found both in Zechariah. The danger came when he had to be cast, as people say, upon his own resources ; though no child of God should ever be cast on aught but the power of God.

For a time all went well with Uzziah. He went out to war and was everywhere a victor. Through his prowess Judah assumed something of her Davidic and Solomonic glory. He built towers in the desert for defense, thus enlarging his borders; and digged many wells for refreshment and blessing. In the gentle art of husbandry he was likewise active; a man who delighted to till the ground and cause it to bring forth what would be for cheer and nourishment. His was not the field of the slothful, bringing forth thorns and briers, but the tillage of the diligent receiving blessing from God.

For how many years he went on in this godly, orderly manner we know not; but in verse 15 we find a sudden break in the happy record:"He was marvelously helped till he was strong." While he was little in his own eyes God could trust him with success; but when he was strong he forgot, in some sense, that the victories were not of his own prowess and that he had nothing that he had not received. '' When he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction:for he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense" (ver. 16.)

Azariah the priest sought in vain to show him his error. He would not be humbled or hindered. God had declared that none but an anointed priest should approach to offer incense. Uzziah was king but not priest; therefore to persist in going in was rebellion against the Lord. Faithfully, Azariah warned and entreated, rebuking him too in Jehovah's name. But all was in vain. Puffed up with pride, he would not be persuaded; so he angrily caught up a censer and proceeded to carry out his intention.

Then God intervened. As the king in his haughty self-will pressed forward to mingle with the priestly company the leprosy rose up in his forehead! He was smitten of the Lord, as Miriam and Gehazi had been before him. It was hardly necessary now for the priest to "thrust him out; " for "himself hasted also to go out," realizing in that awful moment whose hand it was that was laid upon him.

The law as to leprosy in Lev. 13 distinguishes between leprosy of the body and leprosy of the head. Both speak of sin:the former in its grossness as the lusts of the flesh; the latter in its more subtle, though less obnoxious form in the eyes of man, but even more hateful to God-the lusts of the mind. This was Uzziah's case. His mind was exalted through prosperity. Therefore he was smitten in the head.

To the day of his death he dwelt apart from the congregation of the Lord; cut off from Jehovah's house. He remained to the end a sad testimony to the fact that God is not mocked. He will be sanctified in them that come nigh Him.

It was in the year of his death-still under the governmental hand of God-that Isaiah saw the Lord as related in Isa. 6:1:How different the attitude of the two men. The one, a prophet, taking the leper's place, covering his mouth and crying, "Unclean! " The other, taking the place of a holy priest, rushing unadvisedly into the presence of God and made a leper thereby! He was buried in the field of the tombs, but not, I judge, in the tombs of the kings themselves, "for they said, he is a leper" (ver. 23).

His early life of dependence on God, his terrible failure, his judgment and his death may all alike speak loudly to our souls. Oh, for grace to imitate his virtues, and avoid his error, that thus we may be kept in the hand of our God for blessing, and not have to fall under his government because of pride and disobedience. H. A. I.