LXXIX.]

HEZEKIAH'S SICKNESS.

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LESSON LXXIX.

HEZEKIAH'S SICKNESS.

B.C. 713.-ISAIAH xxxviii. 1—3; 2 KINGS xx. 4

-II.

In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.

Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,

And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.

*

And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court that the word of the LORD came to him, saying,

Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.

And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the LORD the third day?

And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?

And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.

And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial * of Ahaz.

* A half circle with a stake in the middle and with degrees marked round, so arranged that the shadow of the stake points out the hour.

LESSON LXXX.

THE FATE OF SENNACHERIB.

B.C. 713.-2 CHRON. xxxii. and 2 KINGS xix. ; PSALM lxxvi.

And the LORD sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land.

So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.

And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword : and they escaped into the land of Armenia and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

Thus the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all other, and guided them on every side.

And many brought gifts unto the LORD to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah: so that he was magnified in the sight of all nations from thenceforth.

ASAPH'S SONG OF PRAISE.

In Judah is God known :

His name is great in Israel.

In Salem also is his tabernacle,

And his dwelling-place in Zion.

There brake he the arrows of the bow,

The shield, and the sword, and the battle.

Thou art more glorious and excellent

Than the mountains of prey.

The stout-hearted are spoiled,

They have slept their sleep :

And none of the men of might have found their hands.
At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob,

Both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.

Thou, even thou, art to be feared:

And who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?
Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven;

The earth feared, and was still,

When God arose to judgment,

To save all the meek of the earth.

Surely the fierceness of man shall turn to thy praise :

The remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.

Vow, and pay unto the LORD your God:

Let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought

to be feared.

He shall cut off the spirit of princes:

He is terrible to the kings of the earth.

We have one glance allowed us of the state of the Israelites in their captivity in Media and Assyria, before we entirely lose sight of them as a people.

The book in which this history is given is among those known by the title of the Apocrypha, and which are not considered to be inspired by God in the same way as the other Scriptures. These books are found in the great Greek translation of the Old Testament, that was made by some of the Jews living at Alexandria, and was used by all the Greek-speaking Jews of the dispersion. The Jews of Palestine, however, did not consider them as truly the Word of God, but only as useful reading, giving good advice, or supplying pieces of history. The Church herself did not decide how they should be regarded, till that good and learned man, St. Jerome, looked closely into the history of the Holy Scripture, and marked off what was not proved to have been written by the inspiration of God." By his decision our English branch of the Church abides; and, as the Thirtynine Articles tell us, she reads them as being full of instruction, though it is not safe to prove doctrines from them, as if they were the sure Word of God. Indeed, when they are examined, it is plain that they are not divine like the other books. The sentences are not full and heavy, with twofold and threefold meanings; the history is not living parable: there is no prophecy, or what seems like it is but a copy from real prophecy. In short, there is all the difference between the writings of men from their own powers, and those of men "moved by the Holy Ghost."

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Apocryphal is from a Greek word meaning secret," as some say, because they were only read in private, not openly in the synagogues; while the true Scriptures are called the Canon, from a word meaning a reed," because a reed was used to rule and measure with; and they have been the rule and measure of faith from the first.

The book of Tobit has many wonderful things in it-so strange, that as they do not come to us on God's own authority, some have thought they cannot be true; and it is not wrong to doubt of them, as it would be of the miracles in the canon of Scripture. People may judge for themselves in the matter, and look on this either as a history or as an instructive tale; it is not a matter of faith. But ere we rashly say these things are impossible, or say that we hear fine notions picked up by the Jews among the Chaldeans and Persians, let us remember that it is certain that angels and spirits are around us everywhere, and that the veil between the visible and invisible worlds was often taken away in those olden times; and it is plain, from many parts of the Bible, that much that we call the work of nature is guided by the unseen armies of heaven. We likewise know that in heathen lands-nay, it would seem everywhere but in Jerusalem-Satan

and his angels were allowed to exercise strange powers over the minds and bodies of men, before the prince of this world was conquered by our blessed Lord; so that it would be very bold to say, that because we never knew of anything like the events in this book, they cannot be true. In fact, almost all wise and good men, till very recent times, agreed in believing the facts, though they did not reckon the book to be inspired.

There was a Chaldee copy which St. Jerome translated into Latin, but which has not come down to our times; and our translation was made from the Greek of the Alexandrian version. The Chaldee was most likely the language in which it was begun by Tobit himself, and finished by his son.

Tobit begins his own life by telling us of his native home in Galilee, where the tribe of Naphtali dwelt before the captivity. He was one of those of Galilee who "saw a great light," for the darkness of idol worship had not closed on his family His good grandmother, Deborah, was one of those who had never "bowed the knee to Baal," nor "kissed the calves;" so even in wicked Israel she bred him up, in his orphan state, to observe the law of God; and those holy lessons of hers were with him all his life. His tribe was mostly carried away by Tiglath Pileser; but he was left, and took advantage of King Hoshea's permission to his subjects to visit Jerusalem at the feasts, and carried thither his tithes and offerings as faithfully as had ever been done in the best of times. The good grandmother was taken away from the evil to come, and had been buried in peace before the final ruin of the kingdom of Samaria; when Tobit, with his wife Anna and his son Tobias, were carried away to Nineveh by Shalmaneser, or Enemessar, as he calls him.

There Tobit was one of the many of the chosen people whom their heathen conquerors found their most trusty servants. Shalmaneser made him purveyor, that is, finder of provisions to the royal household; and he was a rich and prosperous man, well able to help his poorer brethren, who lived in misery and want of all things, as so long ago had been foretold by Moses; he fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and buried those who' were slain and cast out in the streets of the city. He travelled about on the king's affairs, and in the course of them left some money in the hands of some of his friends, who were settled in the cities of the Medes. He never was able to go to claim it again, as there were great disturbances in the kingdom on the death of Shalmaneser; and Tobit's prosperous days were

over.

When Sennacherib came home from Egypt, after the terrible destruction of his host, he knew that it was because of his defiance of the God of Hezekiah, and he revenged it upon the Israelite captives. More than ever of them lay slain about the streets, and still the good Tobit did the charitable work of burying them, till the inhabitants of that "bloody city," as Nahum calls it, complained of him to the king; and he was obliged to flee and hide himself, while all his goods were seized, and nothing left him, not even his wife and son. In fifty-five days, however, Sennacherib slain by his two sons, while worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god;" and Esarhaddon, or Sarchedonus, became the new king. A relation of Tobit obtained his pardon; and his wife and son were returned to him.

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was

The Feast of Weeks came on, and was kept as best it might by the captive exiles, remembering God in the land of their captivity, as Solomon had prayed they might. A good dinner was ready, and Tobit, before he

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TOBIT.

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sat down to it, sent out his son to seek for some poor countryman to share the feast. Alas, what Tobias found was a dead Israelite lying strangled in the street! The charity of the good father was not daunted by all he had gone through already. He started up, and brought the corpse into a chamber, and then ate his meat in heaviness, thinking how the prophet Amos had foretold that their very feasts should be turned to sorrow. At dark he buried the corpse, and then, as by the law of Moses the touching the dead had made him unclean, he kept apart from his family, and slept in the court of his house. The effect of this exposure was that he lost his eyesight, and thus fell into terrible poverty; his friend supported him for some time, but then left Nineveh; and Tobit was only maintained by his wife taking in work to do. Once, when she had received a kid, Tobit thought it had been stolen, and insisted on its being returned. Then his wife's faith failed, and she reproached him with the misfortunes that had come on him. What was the use of all his care to keep the Law and give alms? Tobit then prayed earnestly to the God of his fathers to look on his distress; and that prayer of his met another prayer, offered far away in the Median city of Ecbatane, but which likewise came into the presence of God, and was there mercifully heard.

After his prayer, having now been eight years blind, Tobit remembered the money he had left in Media, and resolved on sending his son to claim it. The journey was long and dangerous; and the blind old man took leave of his son as if they were never to meet again, giving him much beautiful advice, some of which is read among our Offertory sentences; being there translated from St Jerome's version, and thus not exactly the same as the words in the Book of Tobit. A trusty man was needed to go with the young Tobias on his journey; and when he went forth to seek such a person, it was an angel who met him-the great Archangel Raphael, (the medicine of God), who had been sent in human shape, in answer to the prayer of the blind old man, and the sorrowful maiden, to heal their sufferings.

He

The maiden was Sara, the daughter of Raguel, a rich kinsman of Tobit, living at Ecbatane. Seven times had she been a bride, but the evening of each marriage her bridegroom had died suddenly-slain by an evil spirit, who was permitted for a time to exercise his malice. Suspected of being herself the cause of their death, Sara prayed and wept with her window open to Jerusalem; and it was on her behalf, as well as on that of Tobit, that the healing Archangel had come from above, in a human shape. He directed Tobias to preserve the heart, liver, and gall of a fish out of the Tigris, and by the will of God endowed them with heavenly virtues. likewise led Tobias to the house of his kinsman Raguel, and induced him to offer himself in marriage to Sara, who, as her father's only child, was, by the Law, bound not to marry out of the family, so that probably none of the seven dead bridegrooms had as good a right to her as Tobias. When the young man objected to a marriage that had been fatal to so many, the angel bade him burn the heart and liver of the fish in the bridechamber, telling him that thus the evil spirit would be driven away. Tobias believed, and consented to follow the counsel of the heavenly messenger; and Raguel, agreeing with difficulty to let another young husband be exposed to the fearful risk, Sara was given in weeping and mourning to Tobias, and her father spent the night in preparing a grave for him.

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