“ with the temptation he will also make a way for us to escape;" and that according to this promise we shall assuredly find that way. It is useless for us to perplex ourselves, by endeavouring to conjecture what that way shall be ; it is by faith, and not by sight, that we must walk in this world. We must give glory to God, by saying, “I shall escape from the

" temptation, for God hath said it; I see not the way of

escape, but he sees it, and in due time he will shew it to me.”

The rumour which Sennacherib was to hear was, that “Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had come out to fight against him.” Let us here remark on this subject, that God often delivers his people from their enemies, by means of quarrels in which they engage with one another. Thus it was, that when David was in the wilderness of Maon, surrounded by Saul and his people, who were on the point of taking him, “A messenger came to Saul, saying, Haste thee and come; for the Philistines have invaded the land." 1 Sam. xxiii. 27. Thus it was that in a war against many nations united together, Jehoshaphat was delivered by a miraculous interposition of his God, who made the different enemies of his people fight against one another: “ The Lord,” it is said, “set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah : and they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another.” 2 Chron.

22, 23. It was thus also, that Paul, when he appeared before the council of the Jewish nation, was delivered by a division, which a few words that he spoke, probably with this design, occasioned among

XX.

a

his judges. David also, who was not ignorant of this way of the Lord's of delivering his people, when he was overwhelmed with fears, “because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked," cried, “ Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues.” Ps. lv. l-10. In another Psalm, after saying that God would shoot at them with an arrow, so that they should be wounded suddenly, he explains bis meaning in the following verse, when he says, “They shall

· make their own tongues fall upon themselves.” Ps. lxiv. 7, 8. Here let us observe with admiration how, at different times, God by confounding the language of his enemies, and making them that they cannot agree together, arrests their impious designs, and enables his people to pass through the midst of their enemies thus divided, in some sort, as the Israelites "passed through the waters of the Red Sea, which were a wall unto them on the right hand and on the left."

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THE THREATS OF SENNACHERIB, WHEN HE DEPARTED

FROM JERUSALEM.

Previous to his departure, the king of Assyria, enraged at being obliged to relinquish his prey, sent a letter to Hezekiah, in which he endeavors to keep him in a spirit of fear, by giving him to understand, that he meant to return again, and that sooner or later Jerusalem would be obliged to surrender. In this letter, he repeats the impious attacks of Rab-shakeh upon

the confidence of Hezekiab. “Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hands of the king of Assyria." It seems that these words, “Let not thy God deceive thee,” are a kind of infernal text, which the inveterate enemies of God's people repeat to them

with unwearied perseverance, to shake their confidence in the Lord. It is their constant habit to “ shame the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge.” Ps. xiv. 6. Since Satan also incessantly repeats his impious attacks upon our confidence in God, why should not we, the ministers of the Lord, as incessantly repeat those exhortations of the Holy Spirit, which are calculated to revive it? Why should we not say, with the apostle, “ Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. To write the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.” Phil. iii. 1; iv. 4. Let us learn also from these threats of Sennacherib, when he was about to depart from Jerusalem, that it is one of Satan's devices to endeavor to keep us continually in a state of bondage which deprives us of joy and courage. Even in those moments when he is forced by the power of God to let go his hold, he seeks to prevent us from enjoying repose, by throwing ns into disquietude with regard to the future, and telling us, as it were, The evil which you feared is only deferred; I will not lose sight of you; I will soon

1 return again, and then you shall not es

In such cases, we may answer him, If thou returnest, the Lord also will return, for he hath said, “ I will not leave thee nor forsake thee. Behold, I am with you always even unto the end of the world.” Mat. xxviii. 20. And we may be assured, that if Satan returns, it will be to experience, like Sennacherib, an entire defeat. By the grace of Him who is in us, and is greater than he that is in the world, every fresh assault of the enemy tends to lead to a complete victory, and hastens on the moment when the Lord shall bruise Satan under our feet.

HEZEKIAH GOES TO LAY OPEN BEFORE THE LORD THE

THREATS OF SENNACHERIB.

“ When Hezekiah received the letter, he went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.” Here we see him acting in the same manner as he had done on a former occasion, when they reported to him the impious harangue of Rab-shakeh ; from which we may learn, that the real children of God feel an habitual need of applying to Him in all their distresses. With them piety does not consist in certain good moments, thinly scattered here and these amid a life babitually estranged from God. The believer, by a bias natural to the renewed heart, turns towards his God in the hour of his affliction, as a sick child turns toward its mother to find in her bosom consolation and relief.

Wben Hezekiah entered into the house of the Lord, the first thing he did was to spread before him the letter which he had just received.

Hezekiah,” says the Scripture, “received the letter of the band of the messengers, and read it, and went into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.” This action is very significant, and teaches us that the first disposition which we must have, when we would present our: selves before the Lord, is simplicity, which consists in laying before liim without reserve all the wants of our souls and of our bodies, and in telling him all our griefs with openness of heart. 1 Pet. v. 7. Hezekiah spread the letter before the Lord; he did not go to read it to one person and another ; he did not act as we often do, go and complain to others of the injuries or offences which we imagine we have received; he knew that all this could have given him no consolation, and that though men might share

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with him in his indignation on account of the threats of Sennacherib, they were unable to help him. He went to Him who is our strength and our refuge in time of trouble ; and as some one bas well said, he took the letter and enclosed it in an envelope of prayer, to send it to God.

We see in the Scriptures that this ingenuousness is one of the principal characteristics of the prayers of God's people. When Jacob is alarmed at the approach of his brother Esau, he says to God : “ Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of Esau ; for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.” Gen. xxxii. 11. Let us imitate this simplicity of the patriarch, and when we have any fears, let us say with ingenuousness to our God, I fear lest such and such things may happen to me or mine. Thus too, if like Hannah, we are bearing the unjust reproaches of those around us, so that we are constrained to resemble her when she wept and did not eat; let us also resolve to imitate that servant of the Lord, who, being in bitterness of soul, prayed unto the Lord and wept sore, and entreated him to remove that barreness which was the cause of the continual reproaches to which she was exposed. If we act thus, we shall soon find consolation, and there will be reason to apply to us what was said of Hannah, namely, that “ she did eat, and her countenance was no more sad." 1 Sam. i. 5, 18. Again, when we are deeply distressed at seeing heavy afflictions falling upon those who are dear to us, and who, perhaps, have been useful to the people of God and to his cause, let us imitate the simplicity of Elijah, who, being afflicted at the death of the only son of the poor widow, who had received and fed him with so much charity, “ cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with