86 QUAKER ASPECTS OF TRUTH 



her poets* A flood of light is thrown upon the words 

 when we study the circumstances which first led to their 

 utterance* 



Never was there a time, in the whole history of the 

 world, when faith in God seemed so impossible, as the 

 time of Habakkuk* The eighth century prophets had 

 taught the nation that, if only it did right, prosperity 

 was certain to follow. Their simple philosophy of life 

 might be summed up in the aphorism : ** Be good and 

 you will be happy/' And for more than a century 

 this simple philosophy of life seemed to work welL But 

 it only worked well because this turbulent little nation 

 never did do right* It always lived far below the 

 prophetic ideals, so that when disaster befell it, as oft-times 

 it did, there was always something to which the prophet 

 could point and say : ** There is the cause of your 

 misfortune *'* 



But the testing-time came when the boy-king Josiah 

 ascended the throne* Then, for the first time in the 

 history of Israel, the prophetic party came to be in the 

 ascendant* The Book of Deuteronomy was found in 

 the Temple, and a great moral and spiritual reformation 

 took place* Now, surely, the nation would prosper, 

 and their heathen oppressors be destroyed* 



For a while, it looked as though such might be the 

 case* The strong arm of Assyria showed signs of 

 incipient paralysis, and the iron grasp in which it held 

 the Palestinian States began to relax* But the prosperity 

 of Israel was short-lived* Pharaoh Necho, King of 

 Egypt, taking advantage of the weakness of Assyria, 

 led a huge army northward, to attack Egypt's ancient 

 enemy* 



Folly is quite as capable of bringing disaster as is 

 sin, and Josiah, with a heroism closely akin to madness, 

 led the tiny army of Israel against the Egyptian host. 

 The '* King after God's own heart " was slain on the 



