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the Jews, contempt from the Gentiles, and mortifications of every sort from his Christian brethren, awaited him. Nor did these heavy trials cease till they were consummated in a bloody martyrdom.

Now wherefore was this? wherefore but because of his grievous sins before conversion? He had been "a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious;" and it only accorded with the rule and method of God's holy providence that the sins of his youth should find him out in his riper years. And mark how exactly his after sufferings answered to his early sins! He had been accessory to the stoning of Stephen; and, mark it, he alone of all the apostles suffered stoning. He had been "exceedingly mad" against the Christians, persecuting them even unto strange cities; and, mark it, he was himself driven from city to city by persecutors who were exceedingly mad against him. He had been vehemently zealous of the Mosaic law, rigorous in enforcing its observance, and resolutely bent on crushing all who denied its obligation; and, mark it, he had, throughout his whole apostolic ministry, to brook the humiliation of proclaiming the abrogation of that law, and contending against Christian teachers who insisted on its continued observance. In short, he was a great sufferer after conversion because he had been a great sinner before conver

sion. And thus, while his inner life and experience were bright all over with the signatures of God's love and grace, his outward history had inscribed upon it, as if in letters of fire, that terrible word-RETRIBUTION.

O, brethren, we greatly err if we suppose that, when a man turns from sin to God, he leaves behind him the temporal as well as the eternal fruits of his former transgressions. We greatly err if we suppose that the Christian who has led a profane or profligate life before conversion is at all on a level, as regards the comfort of his remaining days, with him who from early youth has served the Lord. It is a fixed law of the divine government that sin shall take with it temporal punitive results no less than eternal ones; and that, though the latter may be averted by flight to Christ, the former cannot be avoided. The rule of returning like for like, instead of being in force only in the world to come, is in constant operation even under these skies of ours. And whatsoever, therefore, a man soweth, of the same kind and quality must he reap even on this side the grave. The young man who has neglected his studies and wasted his early years in vain amusements may lament his folly and obtain forgiveness, but his uncultured mind and desultory habits will not therefore cease to obstruct his success and comfort in after-life. The sensualist may

repent of his licentiousness, and God in mercy may forgive him; but in his shattered health, or squandered substance, or ruined victims, he shall see his sin ever before him. The slothful parent may bitterly regret his culpability in neglecting to bring up his child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and God, in answer to his cry for pardon, may blot out his sin; but his penitence will not undo the mischiefs of parental neglect, nor prevent the misconduct of his son from bringing down his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. What though the incendiary, after setting fire to the forest, may rue the reckless deed and wish it undone? Will that arrest the flames which are rioting on the forest's leafy honours? As little can repentance stay the temporal consequences of sin. Our sin must find us out. And if, then, we have any true concern for our spiritual peace and wellbeing, we will not delay one hour in repairing to God for that converting grace which alone can turn us from our iniquities. The sooner we are converted, the fewer will be the sins whose bitter fruits we shall have to eat. The longer we postpone the grand concern of salvation, the heavier will be our arrears of guilt, and the fuller that cup of trembling which, even unto the dregs, we must wring out and drink.

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"He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.” — 2 KINGS, xviii. 4.

IT is not surprising that a godly prince like Hezekiah should have removed the high places and destroyed the images and the groves. These things were imports from heathendom which ought never to have desecrated the land of Judah. But that he should have extended an equally unsparing hand to "the brazen serpent that Moses had made," is more than we might have expected. That venerable relic had many specious claims to exemption. It had been made at the express command of God; it had proved a medium of healing to the serpent - bitten Israelites in the wilderness of Hor; it was also a type of Messiah, the great Spiritual Healer; and, moreover, it was

now reverend with the hoar of antiquity, having been preserved as a national heirloom for the long period of eight centuries. But such considerations. had little weight with a king who was jealous of the honour of Jehovah. The fact that "unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it" denuded it in his eyes of all title to be spared; and hence, in spite of its sacred origin and high antiquity, he commanded it to be demolished. As an antiquarian relic he had no quarrel with it; as a memorial of God's mercy to Israel he would have let it remain; but it had become a snare to the people, and therefore he brake it in pieces, and contemptuously styled it "Nehushtan."

Nor can we doubt that in this Hezekiah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. As a lure to idolatry, the brazen serpent had become more dangerous than even the pagan high places, or images, or groves. Its historical memories and holy associations only served to commend it the more to the reverence of a superstitious people. And ineffectual, therefore, if not altogether futile, would have been Hezekiah's efforts to achieve a reformation of religion had he warred only with the pagan idols, and left undisturbed "the brazen serpent that Moses had made."

But what have we to do with the case of the brazen serpent or of its kingly destroyer? We burn

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