Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,

Yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in
Israel;

Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Therefore will he give them up,

Until the time that she hath brought forth :

Then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of
Israel.

And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD,

In the majesty of the name of the LORD his God;

And they shall abide :

For now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.
And this man shall be the peace.

COMMENT.-To go through all the prophecy of Isaiah is not possible, but we must turn to that other song of rejoicing which fills our hearts with fresh joy every Christmas Day. Isaiah is still trying to draw Judah back to the Lord, with Him in their hearts, making them holy; with Him alone for their fear-they would ever find Him a sanctuary, not only holy, but a sure refuge for all who were in danger; but that very safety to a believer would be a ruinous cause of overthrow to the unbeliever. St. Peter and St. Paul both repeat this prophecy, which comes home to us as much as to them :-" And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed." Those who leave the true faith are like Saul, sure to try and satisfy themselves with some enchantment; and it seems that in these faithless days of Ahaz they betook themselves to wizards, who "chirped" and muttered to persuade their dupes that their spirit was talking to them. Isaiah bids them turn from these dead fancies to the living God. If they wanted a sign, here was Isaiah and the two children God had given to him! The Law and the Testimony, namely the Ark of the Covenant, were theirs still, and whoever spake not in accordance with these had no light in him. All that would come of such seeking would be wandering in darkness and desolation, till they would in their utter perplexity curse not only their king, who had misled them, but their God.

But Isaiah is not dwelling only on the distress the Assyrians would bring, nor on the deliverance that Ahaz's own son would bring, when he should. show the light even to the remote tribes of

There

dark Israel. No his vision has gone much further on. should come a time of darkness and dimness, in the midst of which a great Light should suddenly break forth in the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, which had already suffered from the Assyrian-in Galilee by the little Sea or Lake of Chinnereth; Galilee, called of the Nations, because it had always been partly peopled by strangers. These, the most rude and ignorant, the remotest from Jerusalem, should see a great Light. St. Matthew himself quotes the pro

phecy when the Light appeared :

Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee ;

And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim :

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,

The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;

The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

Oh, what a song of ecstasy Isaiah breaks into ! He sees beforehand the Jewish tribe multiplied into the Universal Church, and joy in the harvest of souls, joy in the victory of Christ and His Saints; in the battle day—not of warriors and blood, but when earth shall flame at His coming.

ever.

For to us the coming Immanuel is born;
He shall rule. His kingdom shall be for

to us a Son is given.
His names of glory declare His infinite wisdom, His Divine
power, and, above all, that He is the Prince of Peace. Peace in
our souls, peace in His Church, peace for evermore in heaven,
--peace, for He hath won pardon and peace, and left it to us.
"Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you."

And Micah took up, either at once or soon after, the Christmas promise of Isaiah. He calls Jerusalem the "daughter of troops," namely, troops of marauders, because of the robbery and violence that had been committed; but though her wicked ruler should be smitten with a rod, there was a ruler to come forth from Bethlehem-Ephratah. He calls it by both names, "The House of Bread" and "The Fruitful." The place counted for little among the thousands of Judah, yet the true King, the Son of David, should be born there. It was by this prophecy that the Scribes directed the Wise Men of the East when they came to Herod: from this

that the Jews always looked for the Messiah to be born at Bethlehem; for the ensuing words speak of Him as having gone forth from "the everlasting." He is the Everlasting Father. God would in a manner give the Jews up-leave them to themselves—until she (that is, the Virgin Mother) had brought forth, and then He should stand and feed-feed us, His flock, as a Shepherd, in the strength and majesty of the Most High, and be the Peace. This Man shall be the peace-our peace with God now, henceforth, and for evermore !

LESSON LXX.

HEZEKIAH CLEANSES THE TEMPLE.

B.C. 730—726.—2 KINGS xvii. 1, 2 ; xviii. 1—6; 2 CHRON. xxix. 3-11, 15-19.

In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him.

*

*

*

*

Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.

Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.

And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did.

He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.*

He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.

For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses.

He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them.

And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street,

And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.

For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes

* A piece of brass.

of the LORD our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs.

Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt-offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel.

Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment,* and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.

For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.

Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.

My sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense.

And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD.

And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron.

Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD: so they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.

Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, and the altar of burnt-offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the shewbread table, with all the vessels thereof.

Moreover all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign did cast away in his transgression, have we prepared and sanctified, and, behold, they are before the altar of the LORD.

COMMENT.-After Hoshea had murdered Pekah, it was nine years before he became king of Samaria. He was a man of blood and violence, but not a determined supporter of the calf-worship like the other kings; indeed, as Dan is never mentioned after Benhadad laid it waste, it is most likely that the shrine there was destroyed, and that the many prophecies of Hosea and Amos against Bethel had been fulfilled. And the most pure and brilliant hope had risen upon Judah, when, on the death of wicked Ahaz, the first thought of his son Hezekiah was to restore the worship of God in the beauty of holiness, and purify the land from end to end, destroying even the high places and wooden pillars that half-hearted kings feared

* Consternation.

to interfere with. Nay, even the brazen serpent of the wilderness, the emblem on which saving faith had hung, he destroyed, because the people were treating it as an idol. He called it "a piece of brass," to teach them that their faith must be in God, not bound to any visible thing. And in his very first month he sent forth a summons to all the terrified, persecuted, widely scattered priests and Levites. It is as if to encourage them after the hardships and cruelties they had endured from his father, that he called them "my sons,” and represented to them how bitter was the trouble that their forsaking the Lord had brought on the nation. It was in his heart, he said, to bind the nation by a fresh covenant; so he bade them cleanse out of the Temple all the filth and idolatry they found there. Full eight days it took them to clear away Ahaz's defilements-his idol altar and all other remnants of his foul attempts at insulting God. All were cast into the brook of Kidron-the same which drained away the blood and offal of the sacrifices. The vessels, too, which were not destroyed they cleansed, sanctifying all no doubt with sacrifice. How blessed the change! how happy they must have been! We cannot help echoing the song of joy with which the sons of Korah welcomed their return to the Temple they had so grieved and mourned for :

LORD, thou hast been favourable unto thy land:
Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.

Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people,

Thou hast covered all their sin.

Thou hast taken away all thy wrath :

Thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.

Turn us, O God of our salvation,

And cause thine anger toward us to cease.

Wilt thou be angry with us for ever?

Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?

Wilt thou not revive us again:

That thy people may rejoice in thee?

Shew us thy mercy, O LORD,

And grant us thy salvation.

I will hear what God the LORD will speak :

For he will speak peace unto his people,

And to his saints:

But let them not turn again to folly.

Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him;

That glory may dwell in our land.

Mercy and truth are met together;

Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

VOL. III.

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