Vere. 2-6.-TJ,e power of prayer. The story of these chapters (xxxvi.-xxxviii.) is remarkably illustrative of the power of" etfectual fervent prayer." Four points may be noted. I. PnAYEB IS POTENT TO DESTROY THE ADVERB.A.RIES OF GoD AT TUE GREATEST REIGHT OF TREIB GLOBY AND BOASTING. Assyria had reached the acme of her might. She had destroyed nation after nation; she had "gone up and overflowed." All Western .AJ;ia was here, and now she threatened to effect a lodgment in Northern .Africa, and to add the rich lands of the Nile valley to the productive regions along the Tigris and the Euphrates. She had mea11ured her strength against that of every military power ex.istiug at that day, and in all her struggles had come off victorious. What was to stop her, or prevent her colossal form from dominating the whole earth? A short prayer offered by a petty potentate in a distant city. It is the prayer of Hezekiah "age inst Sennacherib" that overthrows him. " Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib, King of .AJ;syria: this is the word which the Lord bath spoken concerning him: The virgin, the daughter of Zion, bath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn" (eh. xxxvii. 21, 22). ll PnAYEB IS POTENT TO BAVB A NATION AT THE LAST EXTBEHITY, It may well have seemed to Sennacherib ridiculous that the Jews should think to withstand him. He or Lis pndecessors had conquered every other country of Western Asia-Dabylonie and Media, Armenia and Gozan, Syria, Phamicia, Damascus, Samaria, Philistia, Edam; they had contended with the hosts of Egypt and overcome them; how should a petty nation. forty-six of whose towns they had taken in one campaign, and two hWldred OB. xxxvm. 1-22.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 4I -------------------------------- - thousand of whose inhabitants they had carried into captivity (' Eponym Canon,' p. 134), conceive it possible to resist for long an enemy so vastly superior to them? They were open to invasion on every side. Tiglath-Pileeer had subdued the trans-Jordanic region, Sargon had reducc<l l'l,ilietia. and Samaria, Sennacherib himself had for tributarieH the kings of Zidon, Arvad, Gebal, Ashdod, Ammon, Moab, and Edom (ibid., p. 132). How was Hezekiah, cooped up in Jerusalem" as a bird in a cage "-how were his people, a mere "remnant" (eh. xxxvii. 4)-to escape the subjection that had come on aJJ their neighbours? The last extremity seemed to be reached. Humanly speaking, ther1, was no prospect of deliverance; the jaws of the monster that had swallowed all the other countries must crush Judrea also. 'fhere was, however, still the resort to prayer. Hezekiah, Isaiah, doubtless the faithful Israelites generally, betook themselves to God, besought his aid, besieged him with their supplications, and the nation was saved- saved from extinction-saved, for a long term, even from invasion-allowe,\ a century more of independent life an<l a recovery under Josiah of almost pristine glory. Such power has prayer at the extremity of a nation's need-a power the force of which, measured against ordinary mun<lane forces, is quite incalculable. III. PRAYER IS POTENT TO ODTAIN FROM Gon LENGTH OP DAYS AND EVERY TEMPORAL BLESSING. Hezekiah's prayP-r for himself prolonged his lifo for fifteen year~. Christians, under sentence of death, given up by their physicians and their friends, arc entitled to pray, if they so choose, for an extension of the term of their probation, a respite from the doom pronounced on them. In God's bands, and in his hands only, are the issues of life and death. He can, if he will, prolong our life, and Testore us to health, even when we seem at the last gasp. It may not be often suitable that we should ask this boon for ourselves; we have not the reasons to wish for long life that the Jews had. But for others we do well to ask, when they are in danger, that God will spare them to us; and "the prayer of faith" will often "save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up" (J as. v. 15), and give them back to us, as from the very edge of the pit, if our prayer be faithful and fervent. IV. PRAYER IS POTENT TO ODTAIN FORGIVENESS OF SINS, AND REHISSIOli OP TBE PENALTIES OF BIN. Hezekiah felt that, in revoking the sentence of death which he had r,assed upon him, God bad also forgiven the sins which had provoked that sentence (ver. 17). He had been sensible of those sins, even while he had pleaded his general faithfulness (ver. 3). He had doubtles9 begged to be forgiven them. Such prayer God will in no wise co.et out, It is his high prerogative to pardon sin (Mo.rk ii. 7), and it is also bis delight. He bids us ask his forgiveness daily (Matt. vi. 12); he promises his forgiveness to all but the unforgiving (Mnrk xi. 25, 26); he a9s11res us that, if we will return to him, he will "abundantly pnrdon" (eh. Iv. 7). And hi8 pardon includes within it remission of the true penalty of sin, which is his displeasure, his alienation, and its consequenc-ternal death. The pardoned sinner has his sins "blotted out." He " enters into the joy of his Lord,"
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers.1-8.-Sickness and recovery of Hezekiah. A.11 pathos ultimately turns upon contrast, and the greatest of all contrasts is that between death and life. All who bnve passed through a dangerous illnesA, and have been brought nigh unto the gates uf aeath, will feel touched by this narretive, which hints meanings that lie below the surface. I. THE WARNING. The king falls into deadly sickness; and the prophet's voice assures him that his days are numbered. "Thou shalt die, and not live." The king, under the weight of his grief, turns his face to the wall. So A.hab, under the influence of another consuming passion (1 Kings xxi. 4). It is a sign of sorrow thnt admits not of society. Bow seldom do men r~ceive such a warning with calmneasl Bow true Is lt- " Oh our life's sweetness I That wo the pllin of <lrath would hourly die Rather thnn die nt once" ! • What are pain■ and acbe11, and the torments of the gout and the stone, which lie THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [oH. ::r.xxvm. 1-22.