HEZEKIAH’S ILLNESS.

no wicked Rabshakeh speaking
blasphemy against God. All was
quiet. The bodies of the Assyrians
were lying dead upon the ground;
their souls were gone to appear
before the great God whom they
had despised and blasphemed. Sen-
nacherib himself returned to his
own country, but be did not live
there long. Soon after, when he
was worshipping in the temple of
his idol god, his sons rushed in, and

 

 

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smote him, and killed him. What
a sad end of Sennacherib and all his
army! How dreadful it is to de-
spise God, and rebel against him!
He will, sooner or later, punish all
His enemies. They cannot always
resist. His power. He will say to
them at last, “ Behold, ye despisers,
and wonder, and perish.” Acts xiii.
41; and send them away from His
presence for ever.

oe

CXCTIYV.

JIEZEKIAH S J LLNESS,

2AIOON after God had de-
4] livered Hezekiah from
the Assyrian army, the
good king became very,
very ill; so ill that he
thought he must soon die. The
kind prophet Isaiah came to him,
and said, “Set thine house in order,
for thou shalt die and not live.”
This was a solemn message. Heze-
kiah felt this: and when Isaiah told
him to prepare for death, he “ turn-
ed his face to the wall, and prayed
to the Lerd.” Hezekiah was ready
to die. He had long loved and
served God; his sins had been
washed away, and his heart had
been made new. Was he afraid to
die? No; but when he thought
that death was so near, he felt that
he wanted strength and comfort,
and he knew who alone could give
them. When he had been in
trouble and difficulty before, he
had sought God in his house. But
Hezekiah could not go there now;
he thought he should never go to

 

-sorry to die?

 

God’s temple again. But God was
with Hezekiah still, and could hear
his prayers on a sick bed, and com-
fort him there as He had done in
the temple. Hezekiah wept very
much when he prayed. Was he
He could not be
sorry to leave a wicked world, and
go to his home in Heaven; but,
perhaps, he was sorry when he re-
membered his kingdom, and the
people whom he loved so much, to
think that, after his death, they
might have a king who would not
teach them rightly, and that they
might fall into sin and idolatry
again. Hezekiah had been very
useful. He had done much good in
Judah, and he wanted to do more.
God’s people should be willing to
go, and their friends willing to part
with them, whenever this is God’s
will. Hezekiah wept, but he did
not murmur. He was ready to
submit to God, and left all to Him.

And did Hezekiah die? No; it
pleased God to spare his life. God