staircase by a column showed the height of the sun in the heavens. 'l'his shndow would travel upward as the day advanced, and its return down ten steps, beheld from Hezekiah's sick-chamber, would be the most impressive emblem of the new lease of life bestowed. Miracles are never spoken of as mere wonders; they are signs, and have for their object to manifest forth God's glory. They have been wrought in every age of the world. They would cease to do their work if they became ordinary Divina operations, We note that- I. DlVTh'E SIGNS ARE NOT FOR TllE CONVINCEMRNT OF BOEPTICS. This our Lord declared in his rcfmal to do mighty works for the Pharisees, and illustrated in the parable of Dives and Lazarus. Dives wanted one from the dead to go and warn his brethren. Christ plainly intimated that the man who can put away ordinary influences will find out how to resist special ones. No miracle could be wrought which a man of sceptical disposition could not explain away. We should speak very guardedly of miracles as Christian evidences. They are to those in right moods of mind. II. DrvINE SIGNS ABE FOR THE PERSUASION OF THE WILLING AND OBEDIENT. "If a man is willi11g, he shall know of the doctrine." In sowe places our Lord "could not do many mighty works because of the unbelief." There are proper relations in which creatures should stand to their Creator, children to their parents, and men to God. Out of rela- tions man's ":ilfulncss may resist anything and everything. The teacher demands a teachable spirit in the scholars; the master expects a willingness to learn in his appren1 ice; and God asks for "willingness and obedience,'' proper attitudes of mind and feeling, in those to whom he reveals himself. There is a proper "receptive mood." IIL Drn:rn SIGKB AilE FOB TilE STREKGTIIENING AND CIIEERINO OF Goo's PEOPLE. 'l'hey are the Divine response to those who unite firmness of will with frailty of body and mind, who are set on God, but battle hard with flesh and blood. "To will is present wi 1h them, but how to perform they find not." Gideon wanted to trust God and serve him, hut circumstances made the comwission entrusted to him most perilous; therefore God encouragrd him with a sign. Hezekiah wanted to accept the Divine assurance, bnt the rain and del'ression of disease made trust nearly impossible, so God strengthened him with a sign.-R. T.
Vers. 10---12.-Figures of life and death. Some of the Scripture figures of death are full of the sweetest poetry for sensitive souls. Illustrating Hezekiah's fi)!me, an Eastern traveller says," It was in the bleak season of a cold autumn, by the Ri<le of a large moor, that I one day saw a she1,herd's tent. It was composed of straw and fern, ar,d secured under the warm0r side of a hedgi,, with a few briars and stakes. Thither, for about a week, he took shelter, until the herbage failed his flock, and he removed I knew not whither. His tent was, however, left behind. A few days after I rode that way, and looked for the shepherd's tent., but. it was all gone. The stormy winds had scattered its frail materials, and only a few fragments strewed the ground, to mark out that once, for a brief day, the tent bad its residence, and the shepherd his solace, there, And such is this life, and such are all the airy expeclalions, and imaginary felicities, and hoped-for ports and places beneath the sun. 'l'ime scatters them, as the storm did the fern and straw of the shepherd's tent." "What jg your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vani~hetb away; 11 "My days are swifter than the post;" "They are rassed away as the swift ships, as the eagle hasting to the prey; 11 "My days are swifter than a weaver'8 shuttle;"" Oh, remember, that my life is wind." With what exquisite pathos it is sa;id of wrestling, crafty, managing Jacob, "He gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was ga1hercd unto his people"! In view of his long and passionate affection for Rachel the beautiful, how tender is that last expression! Death for us i8 but passing from the fellowship of one company of beloved ones to join the other company that has gone on before. David speaks of the dead as "going down into silence." Is not that also most expressive? The man who has been so full of anxious cares and worldly troubles just steps aside to rest-passes from the bustle of life to the stillness, the silence, of death. 'l'he Apostle Paul says, "If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved," broken up, the pins removed, the ropes loosened, the canvas folded, "we have a buildin~ ~f God," no mere tent, a substantial building," a house not made with hands, eternal m the heavens." So the decay of our body ii only our removal to a new house, built for us, fitted for us, ou. xx.xvm. 1--22,] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 63