to walk; but he must also be full of adoring reverence for the Lord, the ALL-GOOD, and for gentleness, loving-kindness, and tender mercy. He must be faithful to every iota of duty. "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much." The least of real good is superior to a thousand truths without goodness, but nothing excellent is attained without the union of both.

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These are the lessons we are taught by all those declarations of the Word, which proclaim for the grand future a Church in all respects united. Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side and bring them into their own land: and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. And David, my servant, shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments and observe my statutes and do them" (Ezek. xxxvii. 21, 22, 24). The restoration and elevation of all Israel upon the mountains of Israel represents the union of all those who know the truth of every name with each other by the exalted affections of love to the Lord Jesus and mutual kindness to each other. They become one grand Church, one holy nation under one king, the Divine Saviour who is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is called my servant David, because David was the type of Him, and because, David means the Beloved One. The Divine David then, the Divine Shepherd, the Beloved One, the God-Man, the centre of every excellency, will reign over His united and regenerated Church. It will be, as declared of the New Jerusalem, a golden city, and clear as crystal, golden with celestial love, and clear with the brightness of wisdom, and the members will walk in the light of the Holy City (Rev. xxi. 24).

They shall fight against nothing but evil. "I will save them. out of all their dwelling-places wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them so shall they be my people, and I will be their God." Their worship, then, shall be full of feeling, full of adoration, and of blessing. "My tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

SERMON XXXVII.

THE SUN GOING BACK ON THE DIAL OF AHAZ.

"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. 10, 11.

THE very remarkable circunstance related to have taken place as a sign that the King would be restored by the mercy of the Lord, was no doubt calculated to impress him and his people with a sense of the goodness and providence of the Most High.

Though the son and successor of Ahaz, one of the most wicked sovereigns who ever desecrated the throne of David, he was a devout and faithful ruler. He had put away the idols, which his father had multiplied, and led back his kingdom to repentance and to order. "He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father did.” He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made for unto those days the Children of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called it Nehushtan (that is, derisively, a piece of brass)—chap. xviii. 3, 4.

Hezekiah's faithfulness arrested the sinking condition of the nation, and brought again for the almost ruined land a period of truth, righteousness, and peace, very superior to the condition in which the kingdom had been in the wicked times of his father's reign. In this respect, the declining sun of the nation's prosperity went back ten degrees. And no doubt the miracle had an application to the career of the kingdom, as well as the condition of the king. Decay had written its marks of misery over all the land: now penitence and reformation brought prosperity once more, and men were able to sit under their own vine and their own fig-tree, none making them afraid.

The Divine narrative is interesting, as containing the first known account of any instrument for the measurement of time.

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The dial must have been a vertical one, probably fastened to a wall or pillar. Ancient writers say dials were invented in Chaldea, and from the intercourse between Babylon and Israel, it is most likely this dial was obtained by Ahaz from the former country, and from its novelty was called the dial of Ahaz. The dials of Babylonia were made of stone, semicircular, marked with divisions, parts of a circle, making probably 180 degrees, and were built into walls. In that case, ten degrees would mean two-thirds of an hour, and although such a going back could not be done at an appointed time by any other than Divine power, yet we shall easily see that a return of the shadow ten degrees on the dial, could be effected without any further alteration than a slight change in the density of the atmosphere.

The sun every day at his rising and setting appears by refraction in a different place, by eighteen degrees, from that in which he really is. Sometimes, seen through a thick atmosphere, both sun and moon appear two or three times larger than their usual size, and occasionally extra suns and moons are seen, yet in reality there is no disturbance, except in the refraction of the light. So in this merciful sign to Hezekiah, we must not suppose that the sun really was arrested in his course, or the earth stopped in its daily revolution, but simply that such a refraction was produced in the air as to cause the backward motion of the shadow, and thus strengthen the faith of the king, by the conviction that the Ruler of nature was about to restore him to health, and prolong his life.

In the dispensation of outward religion during the Jewish age, by which the Most High kept earth united to heaven, and preserved mankind until the better dispensation of the Gospel should be opened, many signs and wonders and extraordinary events took place in the representative Church of Judea, which were types needed for them, and full of meaning for us; but we may rest assured that they were all kept within the bounds of Divine Order. Nature was not really turned back, or confounded in her operations. A grand lesson was given to king and people, by this apparent arrestation and turning back of the shadow on the dial. This lesson meant, that by genuine repentance and turning to God, the descending sun of their prosperity would return to its splendour, and all would be well with them. But no further change was necessary to give this lesson than takes place in the mirage of the desert, in which sometimes a wide lake stretches out before the traveller, which

vanishes, however, on his nearer approach. A ship, or an army, is seen in the air, which excites wonder, but speedily vanishes away. The people of Jerusalem would understand the sign, for they were accustomed to regard the progress of the sun as a symbol of their well-being or otherwise. When all was dark and gloomy in their affairs, they said the sun had gone down over the prophets, and it is dark with them (Micah iii. 6). When great calamity was to come suddenly upon them, it was said,—“ And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day" (Amos viii. 9). This was language not to be understood of movements in nature, but as symbolic of their condition as a nation. When they were doing well, the sun was shining brightly over them: when they were disobedient and ruined, their sun had gone down.

In the same character and application of language, the end of their dispensation altogether was described by the prophet Joel as a complete darkening of the heavenly bodies. It is written, "I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come" (Joel ii. 30, 31). Yet these

words were fulfilled; the Apostle Peter said on the day of Pentecost, "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood and fire and vapour of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and terrible day come" (Acts ii. 19, 20). Evidently the desolation and end of the Jewish dispensation are described figuratively by the decay and extinction of the great lights of nature; but they were only symbolic forms of speech, not to be understood as literal facts.

The destruction and end of Babylon are described by very similar language: "For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light, the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and I will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah” (Isa. xiii. 10, 11, 12).

In like manner the punishment and destruction of the king

dom of Edom are depicted : "And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree, for my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse to judgment" (Isa. xxxiv. 4, 5). Evidently, a catastrophe of nature is used as an emblem of the ruin of a kingdom, and such language is not to be construed as a literal prophecy, but as a figure of moral desolation. In like manner, when similar language is used concerning the end of the Church by the prophets of the Old Testament, or by the Apostle Peter in the New, it should be understood only of the decay and darkening of the Church, not of any wild crash of suns and worlds. The great universe is a Divine work, and will be sustained for ever by the same eternal Love and Wisdom which originated it, and constantly renews, strengthens, and extends it. It is the illimitable field of His adorable goodness, in which ever-increasing numbers of immortal beings can be trained for heaven.

The sun of nature is a symbol of the Lord, and especially of His Divine Love. As the planets have originated from the sun, and are still maintained in their courses by his attractive force, so have we all originated from the Lord, and so are we sustained in our life and movements by His almighty power. The sun pours forth his heat and light, and all the myriad forms of beauty and good with which the earth blooms and is enriched owe their existence to his beams: so is it with the human mind. The Lord, as the Divine Sun, is the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world. As the Divine Sun, He blesses the angels, and warms the soul. As the Divine Sun, He draws us to Himself. As the Divine Sun, all inferior being is sustained by Him, because it is derived from Him. As the Divine Sun, He shines for ever. "The Lord is a sun and a shield. He giveth grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly" (Ps. lxxxiv. II). "Thy sun shall no more go down, neither thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended” (Isa. lx. 20).

Of this Divine Sun, the earthly sun is necessarily the representative, for it is its out-birth. Hence, in the earliest and best ages of mankind, men everywhere knew and adored this Divine Sun, as the Apostle Paul knew and adored Him, as the blessed. and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who