Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-07-21

with great longing. When he was 16
years old, he made the supreme decision
of his life. OF all the things he did,
that was the most important. He began
to seek after the God of David his faith
er. The Hebrew word translated, seek
after" is from a root meaning to fire.
quent. His heart longed after the best,
he realized his own weakness and in
ability to do what was right, so he fire.
quented God; he came often to Him
to ask His viii and His help. Oh, man!
You may have passed beyond the age
Josiah was when he began to frequent
God, but it is not to late to begin to do
it now. 1t is the greatest thing anybody
can do. 1t is the best preparation any
boy can make for his subsequent life.
Learn it early; it is so much easier to
learn them and prevents many heart
ache and mistake.
HIS REFORMATION.
Such life habit could not fall to pro-
duce the result 1t did in the face of
conditions as they existed. During those
four years from is to 20 he was begin
ming to appreciate the character and
enormity of the sin and vice that was
being, and had been, carried on all
around him in the name OF religious wor-
ship He was at an age when II would
have been exceedingly easy for him to
fall into 1t. But the tenderness of his
heart made 1t just as easy for other i'm
pressions to be made on IL. so that he
could see the horror Of the thing, and he
determined by Gods help to stamp 1t out
In the 18th year OF his reign, therefore.
ne began the process Of determination
of idolatry. which continued for many
years, and extended throughout Jerusa-
lem, Judah and the cities OF Manasseh,
Ephrain, Simeon and Naphtah. 1t was
more thorough than any that had pre-
coded il, for it extended even to taking
away the high places Solomon had made,
and destroying the altar Jereboam 1 had
made at Bethel, three hundred and fifty
years previously. A remarkable fact &C.
Cured in connection with this. When
Jereboam built the altar there at Bethel
thus leading Israel away from the God
ordained worship. a prophet came to him
telling him that it should be torn down
by a man named Josiah; here three hun
dred and fifty-two years later the man
appears and fulfills the prophecy un-
known to himself.
Josiah destroyed every trace OF idola-
try he could find; he also put away the
workers with familiar spirits, and the
wizards throughout all the land. so that
there was mo king like unto him before
him that turned to the Lord with all his
heart and with all his soul. and with all
his might according to the word of
Moses; neither after him arose there any
like him.
HIS HELPERS.
Josiah was greatly assisted in his
work by Jeremiah and Zephaniah. These
three men were the outstanding men
of their day. One year after Josiah be-
gan the work of destroying idolatry,
jeremiah received his call to service
and began his ministry. Zephaniah
spoke toward the closing years of Joash.
There were others, however who help
ed him materially. For in the 18th year
of his reign. when he was 26 years OF
age, he realized that the temple needed
repairing. and brought to his aid many
men to do the work. The temple had
gotten into bad state of repair through
the battles that had been fought against
Judah and Jerusalem. Through the