Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-08-10
Sunday School Lesson
Blu DR.. Marion McH. Hull

August IL, 1917.
2 Chron., 34:1-13.
Golden Tezt-"Rememher now thy
creator in the days of thy youth"
Eccles., 1871.
DIR. MARION NTH. HULL.
When Anon came to the throne after
his father Mannasseh died, he led the
people into all of the idolatry which his
fathers conversion had tried to wipe
out. His reign was short, only two
years; and his son, Josiah, boy of
eight years of age, was placed on the
throne. This boy had a good mother,
and turned out to be an entirely differ
ent man from his father.
His mothers influence was aided by
the presence and influence of men like
Hilkah, who was the high priest and
who made a great discovery, as we
shall learn; Stadium, who was the hus-
band of Huldah; and men of that type.
jeremiah, Zephaniah. Nahum and Hab-
akkuk were all speaking out boldly for
God at that time, and all of them had a
marked influence on the life of the boy.
Zephaniah was probably the great-great-
grandson of the good king Hezekiah, and
thus closely related to Josiah himself.
jeremiah was probably the son of Hill
kiah. and the nephew of Shallum.
The prophecies of these men give US
some idea of the political and religious
situation of the time, and aid us very
greatly in understanding the life of
Josiah.
There were two conditions that should
be noted. First, Assyria was on the
wane Her power had been very great,
but Nineveh was now losing it's grip.
On the other hand, jeremiah and Zeph1-
niah and Habakkuk were enabled by
God to foresee a great power from the
north, as they described 1t. sweeping
everything before it. This power was
the great Chaldean nation which re-
volted from Assyria about this time,
and in a short while afferted it's oaer-
throw, and coming across the desert
and sweeping down through Palestine
from the north, carried everything be-
fore it,
The prophecies which they uttered with re-
gard to this terror from the north and their
denunciation of the Journalism into which the
people had fallen, as well the idolatry, prob
ably were responsible for the great change
which took place in Josiahs life in the eighth
year of his reign; for in this year when he
was sixteen years OF age, he began to seek
after God Seeing the disaster that his father
and grandfather had brought upon his people,
and hearing these men speak against idoIatry,
and warning against this northern invasion, his
heart turned to God, and his life was different
from theirs, as the result Of 1t.
THE GREAT CLEANSING.
-Four years later when he was twenty years
of age and old enough to grip the rcins of
power, h" began TO purge Judah and Jerusalem
from all the evidences Of idolatry: and he made
ii clean sweep of it, too. What he did, he did
with all the vigor of enthusiasm of youth, and
with effcienc. WE'LL for beginning at Jeru-
salem he cleaned up the country even unto
Naphtah' He took away high places; the
ground the Asherim into powder; he made dust
of the craven images and molten images. He
took down the affairs of Balaaim and the images
OF the sun-god, and strewed the dust of them
on the graves of those who had worshipped
Then he killed the priests and burned their bones
with the Word of God hidden; for the greatest
of worship. He did this later to defile these
places, so that the people would not make of
them worshippng places again.
GREAT WORK AND GREAT WORTH.
Then in the eighteenth year of his reign.
when he was twenty-six years old. he ordered
a collection taken and the money turned over
TO trustworthy officials, that the house of God
might be repaired. 1t had not been repaired
since Joash repaired ii $50 years before II
must have been in a terrible condition, particu.
larry on account OF the Dissertation of II by
Ahaz. Manasseh and Anon. When the money
was collected it was turned to the carpen-
tiers and masons and other workmen. and no
account was kept of it at all. because they
did the work faithfully. They went into 1t