Typical Excellence by Watchman

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 2, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 26.

Typical Excellence.

By Watchman

IN purging Judah of abominable idolatries, and carrying forward other great and important reformations, King Josiah is said to have "turned not aside to the right hand or to the left." There was, in his times, a pressing demand for a straightforward reformer. The places and arrangements for idol-worship were abundant. Even in the Lord's temple were to be found "vessels made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the hosts of heaven." Idolaters stood in the two courts of the Lord, and at the very doors were stabled "the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun." Incense was burned to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets. Just beyond the eastern gate of the city were altars used for the worship of Ashtaroth, Chemosh, and Milcom, gods of the neighboring Zidonians, Moabites, and children of Ammon; while in the valley bounding the city on the south, the devotees of Moloch were offering their sons and daughters as bloody sacrifices upon the most horrible of all the altars of idolatrous worship.

To the work of thorough reformation, Josiah applied himself with unyielding resoluteness. Nothing could turn him aside from his determined purpose to abolish idolatry and restore the worship of God in the desecrated temple, and throughout the ungodly land. Though a young man of scarcely more than a score of years, he engaged in the most unpopular and unwelcome of all the undertakings of his degenerate times, with a zeal which could not be dampened, and an energy that could not be in the least abated. Nothing could turn him aside from the course upon which he had conscientiously entered in his endeavors to remove existing evils of appalling magnitude. His perseverance was truly heroic. All honor to those who, like him, keep right on in the path of duty, regardless of all obstructions, so as to have for their commendation the testimony which he had, that he "turned not to the right hand or to the left."

Certainly, if not obviously, more Josiahs are needed at the present time, to fearlessly do what is right in the sight of the Lord, if not of man, without turning aside to the right hand or to the left. Hardly need it be said that churches are suffering deplorably for want of the Josiah type of piety, in the general prevalence of which, among professed Christians, there would soon be seen a new era in the cause of Christ. It would work as great a reformation in Christendom as was wrought in Judah when Josiah banished multiplied idols, repaired and beautified the temple of the Lord, and restored the neglected services of Jewish worship.

Piety of this stamp would introduce the most desirable changes into all religious movements, and give a new character to every Christian enterprise. Too evidently, there is not enough of unswerving devotion to the claims of Christian duty, but rather too much turning to either the right or the left, if not to both, in the discharge of the most imperative of all obligations; and thereby, religion suffers much reproach, and its prosperity is lamentably hindered. Of all worthy aims, none can properly be regarded as more worthy than that of doing right conscientiously and undeviatingly.—Watchman.