(as Hezekiah had thought he never should) in the land of the living.' The old sweet communion in the temple should go right on. Then,

I will add unto thy days fifteen years.

-Fifteen years more of pilgrimage (since the king had set his heart on it); but fifteen years also of grand possibilities, of royal work to do; of room for that finish and rounding out which Hezekiah had so much desired. And for all that he should have still further facilities.

I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.

-Peace, freedom, prosperity, should fill the fifteen years; and not one outside hindrance mar the execution of his plans.

I do not know whether it was because the grant was so large or the means used so small-that Hezekiah's faith now wanted help; first asking a sign, and then for the one that seemed hardest. But again he had his wish; the miracle was wrought, the cure complete, and Hezekiah recovered. And now he was breathless in his great joy.

What shall I say?-he cried,-he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it.-ISA. xxxviii. 15.

-Then with a burst of triumph:

The grave cannot praise thee; death cannot celebrate thee.

The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.

-Praise should fill all his life, and work should go hand in

hand with praise. So Hezekiah thought in his flush of returning health: ready to do all and more than all that could be expected of him. Fifteen beautiful years, new from the mint of Time,-what could not be done with them?

The Lord was ready to save me; therefore we will sing my song to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.

-Sing and teach:

The father to the children shall make known thy truth.

-This was the beautiful plan; and how did it work? Well, there comes now this sorrowful record:

Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.-2 CHRON. xxxii. 25.

-And so the praise died out of his mouth, and his son became one of Judah's most wicked kings. 'The father to the children' did not 'make known' much.

And all because 'his heart was lifted up;' in that strange, incomprehensible way against which Moses warned the children of Israel. 'Lest when thou hast eaten and art full,'-when the Lord hath given thee thy whole heart's desire:

Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God.

And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand. -DEUT. viii. 14, 17.

-It was done, before Hezekiah remembered that it was possible; for the Lord, knowing all, reading his thoughts, let him try to stand alone, the minute he thought he could.

God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.-2 CHRON. Xxxii. 31.

-And though Hezekiah 'humbled himself,' the most he could obtain was a promise that the evil he had called down should not come upon the nation in his days.

The story is full of lessons; lessons wonderfully sweet and wonderfully grave. Look at just two. First, the power of faith-prayer is unlimited.

Concerning the work of my hands, command ye me.—Isa. xlv. 11.

-It is always either:

Ye have not, because ye ask not.

-Or,

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss.-Jas. iv. 2, 3.

-For we know that

If we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.-1 JOHN v. 14.

-But then also, what will you do with this life, this wealth, this gift in any shape, which the Lord has restored in answer to your cry? And what did you promise to do with it?— For there is an old law in the great statute-book which says:

Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God.-Ps. lxxvi. 11.

-Furthermore :

When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, slack not to pay it.-DEUT. xxiii. 21.

U

-Better to die at an untimely age; better to fail on any hand; than having fifteen-or fifty-or five-years 'added to thy days,'-new powers, renewed opportunities, new gifts to invest; then to fling them all away, or bury them in a napkin, or use them for yourself.

XXXIV.

Before the Temple.

But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy.-EZRA iii. 12.

It is not often that the mood of a crowd is in such a way divided. Divided not according to party or race, but only by age: the young shouting, with hats thrown up; the old weeping, with heads bowed down.

So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.

-The weeping swelled into a cry; and cry and shout together went echoing far and wide across the country, with a sound that must have been wholly heart-piercing and indescribable.

A handful of the children of the captivity had come back to Judah, bearing the king's permission to rebuild their temple, and also much treasure from Jews who remained where they were; loving Babylon more, but Jerusalem still a little. The band came up, 'every one unto his own city;' the old captives leading the way, the young descendants