The wise king showed his wisdom in rewarding as he did, fidelity and diligence. It is because this is often not done in offices and warehouses that there is so little mutual goodwill between servants and masters. An employer will often treat his people as mere "hands," who are to sell his goods and do his bidding, but directly work is slack, he will turn them adrift without scruple or ruth; or if they remain for years in his service, will give no increase of wage or salary proportioned to capacity and diligence. A Christian employer, at least, should follow a more excellent way, and advance a diligent servant, not because he cannot be done without, or because it is for the good of the firm to retain his services, but because his promotion is right and richly deserved. It would be a woful thing if God treated us exactly as we treat our fellows. But whatever the immediate result, fidelity and industry are called for from us all. Our Lord Himself said, "_It is My meat and My drink to do the will of My Father in heaven_," and this He felt to be as true of His work at the carpenter's bench as in the precincts of the Temple. Whether in the business, or in the household, or in the Church, the King is ever watching His servants, and of His grace will raise every faithful one to higher service and larger possibilities. "_The Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly_," and His reward will come not only in loftier position but in ennobled character-- "Toil is no thorny crown of pain, Bound round man's brow for sin; True souls from it all strength may gain, High manliness may win. "O God, who workest hitherto, Working in all we see, Fain would we be, and hear, and do, As best it pleaseth Thee." II. Jeroboam's defects in character, and indeed his actual sins, were many and great. 1. His ingratitude to his benefactor was a disgrace to him. He fostered and used, as far as he dared, the discontent which smouldered in the tribe of Ephraim, as the result partly of jealousy of Judah, and partly of restiveness under extravagant expenditure and increasing taxation, and this treachery went on until he was expelled the country by Solomon, and driven out as an exile into Egypt, where, however, he still carried out his ambitious schemes, till his chance came under Rehoboam. Many a man kicks away the ladder by which he rose to fortune. He likes to divest himself of the past wherein he needed help, for it was a time of humiliation, and by cutting off association with former friends, would fain lead people to believe that his success was entirely due to his own cleverness. Even his own parents are sometimes neglected and ignored, and these, to whom he owed his life, who cared for him in his helpless infancy and wayward youth, are left unhelped. "_Cursed is the man who setteth light by his father or mother_."