Vera. 9-15.-Health and sickness. This touching psBlrn of Hezekiah, written in the day of returning strength, when mental effort became possible and perhaps enjoy- able to him, may teach us many things. I. THAT OUR BEAL1'H IS NOT IN OUR OWN HANDS. Thero is a. distinct note of disap- pointment here. 'l'he king had evidently set his heBrt on a long life, and we.s hurt in hiti ~oul that bis days were cut in twain. It seemed an abrupt, unnatural termination. Ho was deprived of that which he might have expected to enjoy (vers. 10, 12). 'l'hougb we know well it is not so, yet we harbour the thought that we can measure our days-can reckon on a large period of time in which to work out our plans; we are a.pt to be surprised and even hurt in our hen rt if our health be removed aud our life be threatened. But we ought to learn that God iR the longth of our days (D,·ut. ux. 20), and that it :ests with him to say when our strength shall decline and wheu our spirit shall return. II. THAT THE TIME MA y 00ME WHEN LIFE WILL DE WITHOUT VALUE TO us; when we 1hall be ready to speak in the strain of the king (vers. 14, 17). Instead of song is THE BOOK OF TIIR PROPHET ISAIAH. [on. xxxvm. 1-22,
eilence or complaint; for peaoe is bitterness of 10ul. Among the living, at any time, there will be found a large proportion of those to whom life is without any vl\luo, and who would gladly lay it down. 1. Do we appreciate the value of our health while we hRve it? 2. Are we laying up resources on which we can dra1v when the enjoyments of life will bo gone, and the season of privation and infirmity has arrived? III. THAT IT IS RIGHT TO ASK GoD FOR RESTORATION FROM SICKNESS. "0 Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me" (see 2 Cor. xii. 8; Jas. v. H). We should do so, (1) believing that God hears our prayer, and that, if it bo to our real and highest interest, he will grant our request; (2) leaving it with him to determine how much of bodily evil it is good for us to suffer. Distrust of Go<l's promise and dictation to hi~ will are the two opposite evils we should avoid. A living faith and e. filial sub- mission are the two perfectly consistent graces we should exhibit. IV. THAT THE PERIOD OF CONVALESCENCE IS .A TIME FOR THANKFULNESS AND CONSE• CRATION. 1. Thankfulness. "Himselfhath done it" (ver. 15). Whatever the number or the nature of the measures we ndopt (vcr. 21), we trace the happy issue ultimately to the hand of the Lord. All remedial agencies are of him. 2. Consecration. "I shall rco softly [reverently] all my years, [remembering] the bitterness of my soul." When God gives back bis life to any one of his children, it is surely a time when that soul should form a profound and prayerful resolution that, if past days have been godless, future years shall be devout; tbat, whatever has been the measure of piety in the time that has been spent, there shall be deeper devotedness and more faithful service in the span tha.t may remain.---C. Vers. 11, 18, 19.-.The great disdosure. "If a man die, shall he live again?" asks the anxious, hopeful, human spirit. '!'his composition of Hezekiah either indicates or Su<70•ests- i° THE LIGHT WHICJl THE HEBREW SAINTS POSSESSED. They believed that death did not terminate man's existence; that, alter death, he dwelt in Sheol with the spirits of the departed, with "the inhabitants of the land of stillness;" in a region, deep, dark, shut up within impassable gates through which they that have entered may never more return (ver. 10). IL THE P.A.INFUL FEEBLENESS OF THEIR LIGHT. This abode of the dead was dismal in a high degree to their imagination; it was" the pit of corruption" (ver. 7); it was the place where God was une.pproe.chable (ver. 11), where his praises were untold and unsung (ver. 18), where the delights of human fellowship were unknown (v.ir. 11), where the opportunities of gaining the highest wisdom were closed against the soul, where men "cannot hope for thy truth" (ver. 18). Such life as there was in those sepulchral regions would hardly be worth having, where privations like these prevailed, ill. THE GREAT DISCLOSURE BY JEsus CHRIST. He did not, indeed, for the first time announce that there was a life beyond death for men. But he did reveal such a life of blessedness and glory as gave a new meaning to immortality. As his disciples, we look for a life which will be characterized, not by the removal, but by the renewal and the immeasurable enlargement, of all the higher blessings of the present time. As exactly opposed to the privations here lamented, we look for: 1. The near presence of God. (Ver. 11.) To depart is to" be with Christ," is to "be with him that we may behold his glory," is to be at home in "the Father'H house." 2. A life of holiest, hap- piest wor6hip. (Ver.18.) Where the pr,,.ises of God will never tire the tongue. Heaven is, to our hope, the very home of praise: "'l'he living, they that live indeed,"-they will praise God in accents to which our fainter and feebler !if~ is unequal now. 3. Oom- m=ion with the perf«ted spirits of men. (Ver. 11.) We hope to behold and to have ennobling fellowship with men at their very best, when they and we shall be purged of all that hinders or lowers our intercourse on earth. 4. Access to Divine truth. (Ver. 18.) "Then shall we know even as also we are known" (1 Cor. xiii.12); then shall we look "face to face" on many truths which here we have only dimly espied; then shall we grasp with firm, rejoicing hold what now we can but delicately touch, or are ineffec- tually pursuing. 5. Life in its large and bluud ful,ness. (Ver. 19.) It is they who dwell in ihe light of God of whom we rightly speak as" the living, the_ living;" it is they who "have life more abundantly." We conclude that: (1) This language of lamentation does not suit Christian lips. (2) We have no need to think of death as arr. xxxvw. 1-22.J '£HE BOOK OF TIIE PROPHET ISAIAH. 4!)
Hezeki11.h thought, (3) We who have such high hopes in us as these should live lives of purity, 11.ud so of preparation (1 John iii. 3).-C.