O Thou who did'st witness my earliest breath,
Be with me, I pray, in the hour of death;
Console me in sadness, refresh me in pain,
And teach me how best I may mercy obtain ;

That relieved by confession complete and sincere,
From ev'ry defilement afflicting me here,
All glowing with love I may gladly depart,

With faith on my lips, and with hope in heart.

my

CHAPTER CII.

MIRACLES IN THE TIME OF THE KINGS.

THE chief are THREE, if we except those of Elijah and Elisha, which we shall read in a separate chapter.

1. JEROBOAM'S WITHERED HAND.

You know that Jeroboam had set up a golden calf at Bethel, and another at Dan. He made the people worship them, and offer sacrifices on the altar to it; and he used to sacrifice to the calf himself, though he was not a priest.

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Behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.

"And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.

"And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.

"And it came to pass, when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against

the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.

"The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

"And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Entreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the Lord, and the king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was hefore" (1 Kings xiii. 1-6).

2. DESTRUCTION OF THE ASSYRIAN ARMY.

The King of Assyria encamped near Jerusalem, and

THE OVERTHROW OF SENNACHERIB,

besieged it; and he sent a very haughty letter to Hezekiah, King of Judah, who took the letter up to the Temple and spread it before the Lord, and prayed

for help. Then God sent an answer to Hezekiah by the prophet Isaiah :

"Thus saith the Lord concerning the King of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.

"By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.

"For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

"And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

"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 A-dram-me-lech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And E-sar-had-don his son reigned in his stead" (2 Kings xix. 32-37).

3. RETURN OF THE SHADOW ON THE DIAL OF AHAZ.

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

"Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, saying,

"I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now 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. took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

And they

"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" (2 Kings xx. 1-11).

NOTES.-Rent means split in pieces. Afore means before. "The boil" was the cause of Hezekiah's illness. A light thing means the same as "a little matter."

QUESTIONS.

Name three miracles in the time of the kings. Where did the man of God come from? To what place? For what purpose? Who was Jeroboam? What was he doing? Why did he put forth his hand? What happened to it? What did he ask the prophet to do? How was his prayer answered? What did God say of the Assyrian king? What was his name? What happened in the night? How many were killed? What are corpses? Who killed them? What became of Sennacherib? What message did Isaiah bring to Hezekiah? What did the latter pray? What sort of a king was he? What favour did God shew him? What was the sign? What did that mean? What was the illness of Hezekiah? What was the means of his cure? Who was Isaiah? What is a dial? Why was it a "light thing" for the shadow to go down?

CHAPTER CIII.

THE MIRACLES OF ELIJAH.

THE MIRACLES OF ELIJAH were fewer than those of Elisha, but they were more remarkable, for he worked them mostly by his own word; whereas Elisha generally used some means-for instance, the latter did not say to Naaman, "Be thou clean," but "Go wash seven times in Jordan." Again, he put a piece of wood into the water to make the iron swim, and meal into the pot to do away with the poison, &c.

The chief miracles of Elijah are six.

1. He made the widow's cruse of oil and handful of meal to last for more than a year.

2. He restored her son to life.

3. He called down fire on the sacrifice at mount Carmel.

4. He called down fire from heaven on two companies of soldiers and destroyed them.

5. He divided the Jordan.

6. He ascended into heaven in a chariot of fire.

Some of these miracles seem to have been worked by God for Elijah rather than through him; but they were all due to that prophet's faith, as was also his being fed by ravens at the Brook Cherith. We are also told in the New Testament by St. James, that the famine in the reign of Ahab was in answer to the earnest prayer of Elijah (James v. 17), and that "he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." He was one of the few persons who, like Moses and Jesus, fasted forty days and nights, and in many respects he was very like Jesus; so that he is called a type of Him, for he was a prophet who was sent from God to preach repentance; he worked miracles, was persecuted by his own people, and ascended up with his body into heaven. This was why the Jews thought he would come again, and why he appeared to Jesus at the transfiguration, to shew that he was not the same person as Jesus.

His miracles are very interesting.