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that will not be till I have laid down all my own will as a sacrifice before thee. Meantime, I pray,—

"Let me in thy common dealings
Mark the wonders of thy grace;
And with lowly, reverend feelings,
Seek thy unseen paths to trace.
"In thy mighty hand confiding,
Though by darkest clouds concealed,
I will honour more thy guiding,
Than if thine arm were aye revealed.
"Therefore, to the Unseen cleaving,
I shall live the life of faith;
Soon shall sight supplant believing,
Glory, take the place of death."

THE CHARACTER OF HEZEKIAH.

BY THE REV. S. LILLYCROP.

Scripture biography is the very essence of biography, for the sacred writers never aim at pleasing, but profiting their readers; they want not to gain a large sale of their works, but to do good to the souls of men: they give a faithful delineation of the character of the individuals whose lives they portray, and leave God to make use of the truth as it shall please his divine wisdom, either for the warning of the wicked, or the strengthening of the righteous. Thus we find it with Hezekiah, the king of Judah, who shone as a light in a dark place; and whose influence on his generation was as salt when it preserves from putrefaction. He stands in history like a promontory in the midst of two seas, for he was the good son of a bad father, and the godly father of a profligate son!

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The sacred penman introduces him to us in 2 Kings xviii. 1, thus, "Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.' As he had been educated in a school of vice, we might have naturally expected a vicious youth to sway the sceptre of the house of David; "but God's thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are our ways his ways," for

"When all is grim darkness around,
He sheds forth a beam of the morn:

as when Elijah the Tishbite came from Gilead to Ahab, with a spark from the light of divine truth, which kindled for a season the flame of almighty wrath; to be succeeded in a short period on Mount Carmel by the brighter light of a spirited reformation. So Hezekiah, at the age of twenty-five, (when young men are generally occupied in pleasure and self-seeking,) undertook the great and noble work of reforming his kingdom, which had run wild under the misgovernment of his father and his idolatrous practices. "He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves." "The axe was laid at the root of the tree." He was no compromiser, as Cranmer and his peers, but a thorough iconoclast, as Luther and Knox. Oh, what misery would have been saved to England, had our Reformers but gone thoroughly to work in these realms, instead of stopping half way! This young prince saw the evil of sin, and sought at once to root it up; and this is the only way to overcome the wicked one. "Put on the whole armour of God," if you would fight the battles of the Lord. Give no quarter to the enemy, but lay all low that would oppose you in the contest with sin and Satan.

After such decision for God and zeal in his cause, one might have anticipated a peaceable and prosperous reign for the monarch of Jerusalem;

but it does not always follow that the most spiritually-minded believers have the least sorrow. On the contrary, Abraham, Job, and Daniel, were men of exemplary piety, and men of poignant sufferings; and such has been the case also in almost every age of the church, to go no further back for examples than the days of Rutherford and Bunyan. Where shall we find more vital godliness, and who suffered more for the love of God and truth? It was when Hezekiah had achieved great things among his people, the temple was purged from idols,—the priests and Levites were offering sacrifices and singing the praises of Jehovah in the strains of the sweet singer of Israel,-that Sennacherib, with his invading army, surrounded the holy city and threatened her immediate overthrow, by the prowess of his Assyrian force! Oh, how mysterious are the dispensations of God! but one passage of holy writ makes "crooked things straight, and rough places smooth;" viz., "All things shall work together for good to them that love God, and are the called according to his pur pose." So this tried servant of Jehovah found it. For though he made

a mistake in buying off their armies at the first onset, yet he soon learned by experience it is in vain to put confidence in man, especially such as are enemies of the living God, whose spleen is not so much against the servants as the Lord, who foolishly think by cutting off the branches they shall destroy the root. He carried his case the second time at once to the God of Abraham, as we are told in the emphatic words of the nineteenth chapter: "And when Hezekiah heard (the blasphemy of Rabshakeh) that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord." And where could he go besides to pour out his soul, but into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth? the friend of his youth, the guide of his ways, and the God of Isaac and Jacob? No wonder Isaiah the prophet was soon commissioned to deliver an answer, saying, "Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, for I will cause him to fall by the sword of his own hand." Surely, "they that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, for as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about them that fear him."

But we are not always to expect the storm will cease the moment a rainbow appears in the horizon; the distant thunders may still roll on, the lightning may dart across the heavens, and the rattling hail may be yet visible in the distance, though gradually diminishing in force every moment, until all are hushed in the soft silence of the succeeding calm. So here we find it in the conduct of the Assyrian general; he is obliged to return from the holy city of Jerusalem, for God had provided some other work for him at Libnah, yet he cannot retire in the peace and quietude of a friendly ally, but in the rage and fury of a disappointed warrior; who if he cannot conquer will threaten, and if he cannot divide the spoil will show by his insulting messengers his envy at God's people, and what he would do if he could. However, it was a mercy for Hezekiah that he knew where to deposit the dreadful epistle, and whom to consult on its contents, as we are told by the writer of this interesting history. "And Hezekiah received the letter at the hand of the messengers and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord." An example worthy of imitation by every pious soul when oppressed by a powerful foe, or assaulted by Satan the adversary, because it is applying for counsel and help to one who has all knowledge and power, and is more ready to hear than we are to pray, and is wont to give more than we can desire or deserve: and who hath said, "Before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear." And who in proof of the verity of his word immediately directed Isaiah to tell the king that "That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria,

I have heard." Oh, why will the children of God waste both their time and breath in running hither and thither with their cares and sorrows, when they have such a friend close at hand, who stands pledged "to guide them by his counsel, and afterwards to receive them to glory"? for God not only cares for them as individuals, but in delivering them from their implacable foes, vindicates his own honour and cause in the world, and convinces his enemies that it is a vain thing to contend with Omnipetence, though they may have broken some of the potsherds of the earth to shivers. Hence that word of consolation to the faithful of the land : "Thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into this city (Jerusalem), nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it: but by the way that he came shall he return, saith the Lord."

How favoured that prince and nation which the Lord Jehovah surrounds with a wall of fire and angels of strength! How sweetly must arise from the lips and the hearts of all the children of Zion, the melody and harmony of ten thousand grateful songs of praise to Him "who remembered them in their low estate, for his mercy endureth for ever!" Now we may naturally expect religion will flourish and the people prosper: cares and fears will vanish, and all will dwell in happiness and peace. No more sorrow, no more sighing; since God is for them, who can be against them? Those who calculate thus, can have had but small experience of the pilgrim's life, or the history of the church. Behold, I leave in the midst of you a poor and an afflicted people, and they shall trust in the Lord," is a scripture to be pondered over every day. This was as applicable to Hezekiah the king of Israel as to Job the patient sufferer; for we are immediately taught by the inspired volume that no sooner was the invading army gone from his citidel, than a malignant disease seized his person; no sooner is he risen from his knees, where he had been supplicating help, than he is laid prostrate on a bed of suffering, which brought him near to the grave. Truly did Dr. Ryland say, "This world is a place of trial, not of rest." And if this fact were more deeply impressed upon our minds, we should not be so frequently overtaken unawares by this, that, or the other trying event; but we should be rather looking out for them, as Abram for visitors, when he sat in the tent door, in the heat of the day. Then we should be able to say with the poet,

"O Lord, my best desires fulfil,

And help me to resign,

Life, health, and comfort to thy will,

And make thy pleasure mine."

But Hezekiah appears to have been taken by surprise, when he was sick unto death, and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him and said unto him, "Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live.” No doubt he reasoned thus with himself, Wherefore all these national deliverances in answer to prayer and faith in the mighty God of Jacob, if now, by a mere boil in the flesh, I am to sink into the grave? Why have I been delivered out of the paw of the lion and the bear, to fall a prey to a malignant disease, which will destroy my very vitals in the prime of my days? The sisters of Lazarus were astonished, when the benevolent Saviour tarried still at Jericho, when he whom their gracious Lord loved, lay dying at Bethany. But "God giveth not account of any of his matters," says Elihu to the afflicted Job; and it is well when we can "stand still and see the salvation of the Lord;" not in idleness and indifference, but in wrestling, spiritual, and faithful prayer. Such was Hezekiah's procedure. "He turned his face to the wall and prayed unto the Lord, saying, I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now

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how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart." It is no small mercy, when we can appeal to God, as to the purity of our actions, and the sincerity of our love to him and his church. That we have not been actuated by any sinister motives in our zeal for religion, but simply have done all under the teachings of the Holy Spirit, and from faith in and love to the crucified Jesus, "who loved us and gave himself for us.' Prayers of faith travel swifter than telegraph messengers; they go up to the third heavens, and down again to the utmost regions of the earth, or even to the bottom of the sea (Jonah ii. 10), before the poor suppliant imagines they can have entered the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth. Thus the divinely inspired prophet is arrested by a divine mandate in the midst of the city, before he could reach his own residence, saying, "Turn again and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people (thus a type of Messiah), Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; behold, I will heal thee; on the third day thou shalt go up to the house of the Lord, and I will add unto thy days fifteen years."

"Wonders of grace to God belong,
Repeat his mercies in your song.'

What encouragement is here to carry every pain, care, and sorrow to the Lord, and to expect that he will undertake our deliverance, either in this world, or in that where tears are wiped from all faces, and joy eternally flows!

Hezekiah has escaped many a shot from the enemy, who desired to have him that he might sift him as wheat. Truly it may be said, we are never out of danger till we have entered heaven. This the sequel of his history proves to a demonstration. He has been tried in his kingdom; he has been tried in his body; but a trial more dangerous than either awaits him. Berodach-Baladan, the king of Babylon, attempts a stratagem with the man, whom the prowess of his armies cannot conquer. In what part will he make the assault? In that which is soonest conquered, the pride of the heart; therefore, he sent an embassage with letters and a present to enquire for his health. No small condescension on the part of an emperor to a petty prince. Poor man, he is caught in the trap, his heart is lifted up, he shows them all his treasures, which, in fact, were not his, but God's, by an inalienable right,—and here he at once exposes the pride and haughtiness of his heart. It has been said with great propriety, "The first thing that overcame man (viz., pride, Ye shall be as gods), is the last thing he overcomes. And what saith the Lord God of his fathers, to this ungrateful act of a wayward child? Why, just that which he often says to many others under similar circumstances, that "Riches make to themselves wings and flee away,”—and such should be the case with all the treasures he had so vauntingly exhibited to the ambassadors of the Assyrian monarch. And here again the child of God bows with filial submission to his heavenly Parent's decision: "Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken." "Thy will be done."

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How happy must that man be who relies wholly upon the infinite goodness and mercy of God in Christ Jesus; who can trust his whole salvation, both temporal and spiritual, for time and eternity, unto him. And how wretched must that soul be who lives and dies estranged from God,-who, in fact, is without hope and without Christ in the world. Oh, let me have the faith, the confidence, and the dependence upon God, which Hezekiah possessed, and then, come sickness, temptation, bereavements, or death, all is well, I am safe, for God is my strength and my portion for ever.

Windsor.

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SHADOWS ON THE HEBREW MOUNTAINS.

No. III.-GOD OUR REST.

BY MRS. H. B. STOWE.

"Return unto thy rest, O my soul !"

There are times when the soul of every one is oppressed with the weariness of living. "What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?" Living, to most who live earnestly, is rowing a boat hard up-stream; it is full of excitement and stimulus to the vigorous arm and determined eye. There is joy in strife, and pride in overcoming. But still there are hours when the oar slackens and the arm is listless. One does not want for ever to contend with the mad race of waters, and longs to put out of the current into some quiet cove where sunbeams glitter in golden rings, and overhanging trees make green shadows and soft whisperings-one longs for a rest.

There are such internal sheltered nooks and shadowy dells, breezy and fragrant with restful images, in almost every soul; some place to retreat into for quiet thoughts. Is it not so, my friend? You are a mother, perhaps, with more than Martha's care, cumbered with much serving. The arranging and harmonising of a family, the meeting conflicting claims, the endless work of compromising and peace-making among young and vigorous wills, the guiding inexperienced servants, and entertaining guests, and withal, the heavy anxiety to train aright that which never dies; these of necessity oft bring weariness, and there are times when you are sick of life altogether. But perhaps sleeping in the cradle is a joyous, beautiful creature, over whom, as yet, sin or sorrow has no power, ever sweet and good, gay and loving, and when everything else is wearisome your thoughts repose there; your heart, like the dove that found no rest for the sole of her foot, folds its wings and is at peace in that cradle. Walter Scott has a beautiful passage in Kenilworth, where he describes the ambitious Leicester disgusted and weary with the game of ambition, turning palled and sick from all his schemes, and twining around his finger a fair tress of his young wife's golden hair, reproaching himself that he had so striven for things of no value, when in the love of one confiding heart he had something so much purer, and more beautiful.

So, too, the world of heart, of poetry, painting, music, open a rest to the man who has long striven with the actualities of life, and made abundantly good by his experience the truth, "that which is crooked cannot be made straight," and "that which is wanting cannot be numbered." Then is he tired of this unreasonable world, tired of men as they are, tired of hypocrisy, tired of pride, tired alike of conservatism and of reform, and it is a rest to go with Shakspeare into an ideal world of men and women, or with Mozart into a dream-land of sound, or with Rubens into the ideality of colour, or with the old Greeks into a labyrinth of beautiful forms, till his soul is rested.

In our prosaic work-a-day country, this rest can refresh but a few; but "as he who hath no oblation chooseth a tree," so even here, nature furnishes a ready and benignant provision. Sometimes one single flower, tended and watered from day to day, in the dwelling of sickness and poverty, is a rest from care, and bears healing under its leaves. Happy they who live in the country; there is rest for them in the springing of leaves, in the green, sharp blades of grass, in the glorious sweep of the elm, and the pointed fingers of the spruce, in the flush of the autumn maple, and in the glitter of winter snows.

Many a worn heart has been rested by these things, that never knew where rest came from.

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