And first, then, as to the fact--so full of interest and encouragement--that at the very close of Israel's history there should be one of the brightest moments that Israel had ever known. What does this teach us? It very manifestly teaches us that in darkest times it is the privilege of the faithful soul to act on divine principles and to enjoy divine privileges. We look upon this as a most weighty fact for all ages, but specially weighty at the present moment. If we did nothing more by writing our papers on Josiah than to impress this great fact on the mind of the Christian reader, we should consider that we had not written in vain. If Josiah had been influenced by the spirit and principle which, alas! seem to actuate so many in this our day, he never could have attempted to celebrate the passover at all. He would have folded his arms and said, "It is useless to think of maintaining any longer our great national institutions. It can only be regarded as a piece of presumption to attempt the celebration of that ordinance which was designed to set forth Israel's deliverance from judgment by the blood of the lamb, when Israel's unity is broken, and its national glory faded and gone." But Josiah did not reason like this; he simply acted upon the truth of God. He studied the Scriptures, and rejected what was wrong and did what was right. "Moreover, Josiah kept a passover unto the Lord in Jerusalem; and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of _the first month_." (2 Chron. xxxv. 1). This was taking higher ground than Hezekiah had taken, inasmuch as he kept his passover "on the fourteenth day of _the second month_." (Chap. xxx. 15). In so doing, Hezekiah was, as we know, availing himself of the provision which grace had made for cases of defilement. (See Num. ix. 9-11). The divine order, however, had fixed "the first month" as the proper period, and to this order Josiah was enabled to conform. In short, he took the very highest ground, according to the truth of God, while lying low under the deep sense of personal and national failure. This is ever the way of faith. "And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of the Lord, and said unto the Levites that taught _all Israel_, which were holy unto the Lord, Put the holy ark in the house which _Solomon_, the _son of David, king of Israel_, did build: it shall not be a burden on your shoulders; serve now the Lord your God, and _His people Israel_. And prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your courses, _according to the writing of David king of Israel_, and according to the writing of Solomon his son, and stand in the holy place, according to the divisions of the families of the fathers of your brethren the people, and after the division of the families of the Levites. So kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, _that they may do according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses_."