MAMA. Just the natural and infallible order of God's dealings with his people, my dear child. We read first of repentance,-next of sanctification, then, as a necessary consequence, of joy and comfort, and now comes acceptance and salvation to crown the whole! And what were the permanent and blessed effects of this " renewed heart" on king and people? Observe it was then, and not till then (which made me leave our chapter to resort hither) that the zeal against idolatry, and destruction of heathen altars, mentioned in Kings, took place. This is also the legitimate order of things. The desire to "turn unto the Lord," does, it is true, generally precede conversion; but it is seldom that the power to do so effectually is possessed, till, like Hezekiah and his sanctified people, we have "tasted of the goodness of the Lord."-How different in spirit (though the same in its effects) was the obedience of love, which sent a ransomed people to overthrow the idols they had blindly served, from the fierce and partial reforms and intolerant rage of a persecuting Jehu! We find, from a continued perusal of Chronicles, that the service of God was efficiently restored and adhered to by king and people. What says our own chapter of Hezekiah's reward?

MARY. "The Lord was with him, and he prospered whithersoever he went forth."

MAMA. And what immediately follows, as a contrast?

MARY. The account of the miserable destruction of Israel and its king.

MAMA. Yes, Mary; just what the opposite conduct of the two nations naturally led to. But alas, for poor human nature! reverses almost equally humiliating, though, praised be God, not final, await us in the history of Hezekiah. But I really have not heart to enter on them now, after so delightfully expatiating on those days of blessedness, when, like Job, "the candle of the Lord shone on his head." To keep distinct, therefore, these two remarkable and equally instructive portions of Hezekiah's life, we will defer till to-morrow all mention of his temporary errors, and his ample repentance of them; as well as the manner in which, being, like a greater than himself, made perfect (I mean, of course, in the sense in which it is said of David and Asa,) by suffering, "he glorified God in the day of his adversity, and it was counted unto him for righteousness."-We have had much to-day of purely spiritual instruction; let it sink deep, my dear, and cleanse our hearts, as the piety of Hezekiah did the earthly tabernacle.

249

MORNING TWENTY-SEVENTII.

LESSON.-2 Kings, Chapter xviii. 13.

MAMA. I hope, Mary, indeed I can have no doubt, that the particulars we read yesterday in Chronicles, of the early piety, and “zeal for the Lord," of Hezekiah, have made you follow with deep interest and attention the circumstances recorded here, of the blasphemous taunts of the king of Assyria's messengers against the Lord of Hosts, and the triumphant manner in which it pleased God at once to vindicate his glory, and deliver his believing servant. But "trouble,” Mary, "springs not from the ground." It is either" of the Lord," and then his servants, who are "exercised thereby," can acquiesce with cheerful submission in his fatherly appointment; or, as it was with Hezekiah, and is most frequently with ourselves, "We are verily guilty concerning the thing" from which, as naturally as turbid streams from a polluted fountain, our sorrows and disquietudes arise. What step did He

zekiah take with regard to the king of Assyria, which is utterly unworthy of his character as a prince" greatly beloved of God?"

MARY. Mama, he was afraid of him, and begged his pardon; for, you know, it says he had "rebelled against him ;" was this wrong?

MAMA. My dear, that depends on the nature of the rebellion. Was Judah the natural servant or tributary of the king of Assyria?

MARY. No. I suppose it was only because the king of Assyria was strongest.

MAMA. Just so. And since God had graciously strengthened Hezekiah to throw off the disgraceful heathen yoke, he offended Him far more than he could possibly do the Assyrian tyrant, when he meanly crouched to the latter, and laid at his feet every thing he had; yea, even the gold and silver of God's house, to avert his anger. It is both melancholy and singular, that, with so much piety, Hezekiah should at this time have combined so weak a faith! Did his base expedient prosper?

MARY. No, Mama; you know it never did. The king just sent another army greater than before.

MAMA. By what step did he preface his attack on Jerusalem ?

MARY. The chief men of Assyria came and

talked with the chief men of Judah, and told them how vain and foolish it would be to hold out against their master.

MAMA. that?

Ay and what led them to think

MARY. Because the gods of the other nations round had not been able to deliver them out of his hand.

MAMA.

What was this doing to the only living

and true God, Mary?

MARY. Affronting him, Mama, by making him like idols of wood and stone.

MAMA. Very well indeed, my dear. And is this a comparison he ever fails to resent?

MARY. No. That was the very reason why Hezekiah hoped God would help him " to reprove the words he had heard against himself.”

MAMA. What reason had Hezekiah to expect such deliverance besides God's own vindication? Had he repented of his unhallowed compact ? ·

MARY. Oh yes; he "rent his clothes, and còvered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord."

MAMA. Just what David, his ancestor, used to do on similar occasions; and what, in a figurative and spiritual manner, every true penitent must do now. And whose joint prayers did the brokenhearted king implore?