I. HIS ANCESTRY.

1. The son of Solomon, the son of David.

2. The son of Naamah the Ammonitess, the daughter of Hanun the son of Nahash (2 Chronicles 10:1).

II. HIS KINGDOM.

1. Its extent. Judah, with a portion of Benjamin.

2. Its capital. Jerusalem, the city of the great King.

III. HIS REIGN.

1. The beginning of it. When he was forty years of age.

2. The length of it. Seventeen years; short in comparison with that of Solomon.

3. The character of it.

(1) Vigorous: "he strengthened himself" (ver. 13).

(2) Idolatrous: "he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord" (ver. 14).

(3) Troubled: "there were wars continually between him and Jeroboam" (ver. 15).

4. The end of it. Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.

IV. HIS ACTS.

1. All written. From first to last (ver. 15). What a calamity to any man it would be to have all his deeds recorded on the page of history! Yet first and last every action of every man is being engrossed upon the page of God's book of remembrance.

2. Where written? In the book of Shemaiah the prophet, and in that of Iddo concerning genealogies. A small honour compared to being written in the book of life. Not so serious a matter to have one's deeds inscribed upon a perishing page by a human biographer as to have them graven "as with a pen of iron in the rock for ever," by the hand of God's recording angel upon the tablets of eternity.

V. HIS SUCCESSOR.

1. His name. Abijah, or Abijam (2 Chronicles 13:1).

2. His rotgut. In Rehoboam's stead. An honour to Rehoboam that he had a son like Abijah; a mercy to Judah that Abijah was better than his father. - W.

1. Things will go on well in our own country —

(1)When the intelligence of its inhabitants shall keep pace with their means of information.

(2)When their conduct shall keep pace with their increasing knowledge.

(3)When the Christian Church shall employ all those means for the salvation of the world which are placed within her power.

2. Things may be said to go on well in a Church when there is a unanimous desire to —

(1)Understand;

(2)practise;

(3)and spread the gospel.

II. THE TIME WHEN THERE WAS THIS PROSPERITY in Judah. "And when he humbled himself," etc. When the Church shall humble herself for her sins, she will realise an amount of prosperity hitherto unknown.

1. Some of the sins which should induce this humiliation.

(1)Ignorance.

(2)Persecution.

(3)The profanation of the Sabbath.

(4)Drunkenness.

(5)Covetousness.

(6)Infidelity.

2. The character of that repentance which is necessary. It must be —

(1)Deep.

(2)Universal.

(3)Daily. (Zechariah 12:10-18).

III. THE ACKOWLEDGMENT OF THIS PROSPERITY. Lessons: We may learn —

1. That one individual may be the source of incalculable good, or incalculable evil.

2. The importance of a knowledge of history, which illustrates the dealings of God with men.

3. The gratitude we owe to God for having given us the means of prosperity.

(H. Hollis.)