whom I sojourn, hy slaying her son ?" 1 Kings xvii. 20. This same Elijah, when he fled from Jezebel, who was seeking after his life, being fatigued and exhausted by his journey, and saddened by perceiving his own timidity, sat down under a juniper tree, and, with childlike simplicity, laid open before the Lord his discouragement and depression of soul, saying, “ It is enough ; now, O Lord, take away my life ; for I am not better than

my fathers.” When the apostles came forth from the council of the Jewish nation, by whom they had been charged with many threats not to speak any more in the name of Jesus, after relating the matter to the brethren, they all, with one accord, lifted up their voice to God, to make known to him their situation, saying, “Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word.” Acts iv. 29. If you would see numerous and striking examples of this simplicity in prayer, read the Psalms of David, and you will perceive how he was in the habit of pouring out his complaint before the Lord, and shewing before him his trouble.” Psalm cxlii. 2. Sometimes he complained that he was “the song of the drunkards,” Psalm lxix. 12; that the “proud had held him greatly in derision;" that they “saw him and laughed him to scorn ;” that his

“ familiar friend had lifted up his heel against him.” At other times, he tells him of the anguish of his soul, and says, “I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing ;, my spirit is overwhelmed within

heart within me is desolate ; tears have been my meat day and night; while they say unto me, Where is thy God?” In fine, at other times, he tells him of his bodily evils: “There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger : my wounds stink and are corrupt, because of my foolishness; my loins are filled with a loathsome disease,

own

and there is no soundness in my flesh.” Ps. xxxviii. 6, 7.

It is an honor we render to God, and an honor of which he is jealous, to confide to him thus freely all our griefs; he himself urges us to it by his Spirit, when he tells us, “ Trust in him at all times, ye people ; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us." Ps. lxii. 8. A father and a mother are jealous of the confidence of their children, and they are touched when those creatures, which are so dear to them, confide to them all their troubles, great or small, and come to deposit them without disguise in their bosom. This simple disclosure of all our griefs to God, which is our duty towards him, is also our happiness. Why do our griefs lie so heavy on our heart ? Because we allow them to rest there, without telling them to God. A faithless fear of wearying him, the unwarrantable apprehension that we have failings which we dare not make known to him, or the grievous habit of shutting ourselves up within ourselves, too often prevent this simple and detailed exposure of our wants, which so powerfully relieves the heart. We are never happy but when we can say to God, “ All my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee.”

The second thing which we remark in the prayer of Hezekiah, is the care which he takes to render unto his God the glory which the impious Sennacherib had endeavoured to deprive him of, by comparing him with the idols of the pagan nations which he had conquered, and by daring to maintain that he was as unable to defend his people, as they were to protect the nations that worshipped them. Hezekiah gives a just account of these idols, when he says, “They are no gods, but the work of men's bands, wood and stone;" therefore it is, he says, that the kings of Assyria “have cast them into the fire, and destroyed them.” In the following verse, he renders unto God the glory which was due to his name, when he says, “ Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of their hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.” This same confidence in the great power of God, this lofty idea of what he is and what he can do, which we find here expressed, is what our Lord intended to raise in us, as an essential element in prayer, when be placed at the head of that form which he dictated to his disciples, these words, “Our Father;" words which at once remind us of the great tenderness and the great power of the Being whom we address. It was by the same Spirit, that Hezekiah called to mind, on the one hand, the love of God, by addressing him as “the God of Israel," and on the other, his infinite power, by addressing him as “the God of all the kingdoms of the earth, the God that made heaven and earth.” We find the same confidence in the power and goodness of God expressed in the prayer of Jehoshaphat, when he was attacked by a number of enemies united together against him: “O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen ? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?...... O our God, wilt thou not judge them ? for we have no miglit against this great company that cometh against us : neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.” May the Lord grant that the more Satan and our natural unbelief seek to abase the glory and power of God, the more the Divine Spirit may exalt them within us, and give us to rise, by a confidence in bis great might, above all those fears with which our enemies endeavour to inspire us!. May we

ever be enabled to say, with firm and assured conviction, “ All the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses ; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen ; but we are risen and stand upright.”

We see also in the prayer of Hezekiah, that he interests the glory of God in his deliverance, and that he prays to be rescued from the hand of Sennacherib, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that he is God, and he only. It is a strong ground of confidence and a principal argument to make use of in our prayers, that the glory of God is concerned in our deliverance; that our enemies are also his, and that his name shall be glorified, when he shews that, notwithstanding our weakness, he is able to save us. Happy are we, if that God who trieth the heart, can see, when he looks within us, that it is a solicitude for his glory which especially makes us pray for deliverance ! Happy are we, if we can say with truth, “My God, wilt thou allow me, by my impatience, by my attachment to the world, by my irregularity in my affairs, by not keeping a guard upon my tongue, or by any other similar neglect of duty, to give occasion to thine enemies to blaspheme thy name, or to dishonor the holy calling wherewith I am called ? Wilt thou allow my faith completely to fail, and my courage to be altogether destroyed, so that men shall be able to say of me, Where is thy confidence in God? Where is the consolation and the strength which is imparted by that faith of which you boast, that it is the victory that overcometh the world ?!”

Finally, we see in the prayer of Hezekiah a real selfabasement of soul, leading him to depend exclusively upon the Lord. Though he was a king, and ruler over others, he humbles bimself before God as a poor helpless

creature, incapable of doing any thing of himself, and he says to him, with the humility and simplicity of a child, s Save us out of the hand of Sennacherib.” It is true, that. God had reduced him to such a state of distress, that it was almost impossible for him to put his confidence in any

human resources. Nevertheless, it was happy for him that the grace of God had enabled him to profit by his humiliating circumstances; for so proud is man, that he sometimes chooses rather to perish in his selfconceit, or at least to consume away his existence in dreaming of imaginary resources in his difficulties, than simply and sincerely to fly to him who has said, “ Call upon me in the time of trouble, and I will deliver thee.” Let us beware lest we be taken in this snare ; let us lay aside this proud habit of looking for some reason in ourselves by which God may be induced to come to our deliverance. Let us for ever cease to present oura selves before God with pretensions, and to be discouraged, because when we say, “ Deliver me," we cannot rest upon some degree of strength or goodness, which hitherto we have possessed. May the Spirit of God teach us to say with childlike simplicity and unreserved freedom, “Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul ! Lord, have mercy upon me, for I am as a man that hath no strength."

THE SECOND ANSWER OF THE LORD TO HEZEKIAH-HIS

DENUNCIATIONS AGAINST SENNACHERIB.

The answer to Hezekiah's second prayer was not less speedy in coming than the former: “Before they call, saith the Lord, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear." Isaiah, the son of Amoz, was desired to send to Hezekiah, saying, “ Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, I have heard.",