the Jews made but a feeble defence against the Assyrian army. Their wretched monarch, attempting to escape, was taken among the thorns, bound in fetters, and carried to Babylon.

Whether Manasseh, when hard pressed by the enemy, thought of Jehovah his father's protector, the history does not inform us; but it seems scarcely possible that, reckless and degraded as he was, the prayer which trembled on his lip in infancy, should not in such an hour ascend spontaneously to heaven. Hezekiah had been warned that some of his posterity would be servants in the palace of the king of Babylon. He would often remind Manasseh of this threatening, when urging him to abide by the religion of his fathers. As this prophecy began to receive its accomplishment in Manasseh's own person, it must have tended to convince him that Jehovah is the true God.

CHAPTER XV.

CAPTIVITY AND PENITENCE OF MANASSEH.

"TRAIN up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Not only does this proverb express the influence of a pious education on the general course of life, but it is specially true in regard to the influence of a good early training on the feelings and habits of old-age. In the heated passions of youth, and in the animated struggle for wealth or honor or a comfortable subsistence in middle life, men may forget the teachings they received at the domestic fireside, and the prayers which they heard around the family altar. They sometimes seem as thoughtless, as worldly, or even as corrupt as the children of ungodly parents, whose only instruction was in the arts of sin. But years draw on, disappointments befall them, the tempests of affliction beat on their heads, the charms of the world fade away. Now they feel the need of a prop to support them, of a rock to shelter them, of a rest to refresh them. Early impressions revive, the seed sown in childhood is watered by the dews of the Spirit, and long after the hand of the sower has crumbled into dust, the harvests of salvation wave in rich luxuriance. In his dungeon at Babylon, Manasseh had ample

time to reflect on his folly.

The palace of his

father would rise before his mind. He would think

of the scenes of his early life. Again good Hezekiah would seem bowing in his retirement, and offering supplications to the God of Abraham for the son of his hopes; while the artless boy kneels beside him in all the simplicity of childish devotion. Again Manasseh would seem to feel on his head the gentle pressure of the parental hand, and to hear the earnest, affectionate counsel to walk in the ways of Jehovah. He would think of what he was, and of what he might have been; of the curses he had called down on his kingdom, and of the blessings he ought to have conferred upon it; of Jehovah rejected, of the temple desecrated, of the image in the holy sanctuary even now bearing witness to his shameless apostasy. The blood of his innocent subjects, the blood of his own children, would seem to flow over his soul and cry to God for vengeance.

But he remembered too, he had been taught that Jehovah, unlike the gods which his folly had chosen, is gracious to the penitent; that with him there "is forgiveness and plenteous redemption." He therefore "humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him. And he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom."

What an example is this for the encouragement

of pious parents to be faithful in the religious education of their households. What an example to cheer parents in praying for the conversion of children who have broken away from the instructions and admonitions of the family circle, and appear to be desperately reprobate.

And what an example to inspire hope in the bosom of the most hardened and profligate, if only they are penitent for their sins. Who has departed further than Manasseh from the gates of life? Who more impiously challenged the Majesty of heaven? Who more thoroughly cast off the restraints of early education? Who stained his soul more deeply with the blood of his fellow-men? But his prayer for mercy was accepted, his sins forgiven, through the merits of Him whom ancient types and shadows, sacrifices and prophecies, had foreshown. The cheering words from heaven had never sounded in his ear, "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life;" and if in that age Manasseh could trust in the mercy of God, how much more may men in these last times, "being justified by faith, have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ?"

At what year of his reign Manasseh was carried to Babylon, or how long he remained a prisoner, the sacred record does not inform us. Some think

he was in captivity only a year, while others extend the time to twelve years. It seems improbable that if he had reigned a great while after his restoration, the writer of the book of Kings, omitting all notice of his captivity and reformation, would have stated only that "he did evil in the sight of the Lord." If a large part of his reign was devoted to the service of Jehovah, we should not expect the historian would thus characterize it as a whole. Nor should we expect, in such a case, to find it declared without limitation that "Amon did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh did."

We are equally uninformed as to what induced the king of Assyria to set Manasseh at liberty. With the Bible in our hands, we know that the moving cause of his release was his penitence and supplication for mercy. But this was not the motive which led a heathen prince to restore him to his kingdom. "He meant not so, neither did his heart think so." God executes his purposes through human instrumentality, while men act freely, from motives of their own, in accomplishing their schemes.

Lured by flattering lips, have you forsaken the ways of wisdom in which you was early trained, to walk in the flowery paths of pleasure? Pause, child of prayer, in your mad course, while yet you may, and turn to the God of your fathers; so shall