only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, and whom no man (by material eyes) hath seen or can see (1 Tim. vi. 15, 16). As men became, however, of the earth earthy, carnal, and sensual, they lost sight of the Eternal Sun, and of the inner light and inner love which from Him radiated into their souls, and transferred their adoration of the Divine Sun to the sun of nature—from the cause to the effect, from the reality to the image. Hence arose Sunworship in all its various forms. Afterwards, images of the sun were made, and ultimately these images were worshipped, and endowed with divine powers. So senseless does man become, when he looks downwards to earth in the indulgence of his lusts and carnal appetites, instead of looking upward, and striving continually to become spiritually-minded.

For us, the path of wisdom is to turn upward to the light which shines from the Lord Jesus. The Divine Sun is incarnated in Him, and in His face beams the glory of God. God is manifest in Him, and His countenance is as the sun shineth in his strength (Rev. i. 16). This Sun of the soul is the grand CENTRAL SUN of all the spiritual being. He is the Light; He is the Love; He is the Power, which draws all men unto Himself, and in whom they will find their true Centre, their Father, their Saviour, their Regenerator, their Friend; the King of kings and Lord of lords; the Prophet, Priest, and King. It was to represent the movements of this Divine Sun in the penitent soul, sin-sick, that the miracle was wrought for Hezekiah, and recorded in the Divine Word. The sick king represents the soul conscious of discomfort, weakness, and wrong, and convinced that without Divine help it must die utterly immersed in evil: there is no salvation in itself. The sun-dial was a reflector of the light, and an indicator of its progress. The rational mind is a mental sun-dial. When it is dark, there is no light of truth in the soul. When the spirit is in deep sorrow, and surrounded by dark clouds of doubt, difficulty, and despair, the sun-dial's use is only negative. That it gives no indication, should lead to humility, to prayer and research. Try yourselves, and search the Scriptures, are admonitions which we should never forget in trials of the soul. When we break through the clouds, and light comes in-the light which shews us our state-some advancement has been made. If the light we have tells us the day is already far spent, the summer is nearly ended, and we are not saved, then does it in reality urge to fly for help and refuge to Him who is mighty to save.

Isaiah the prophet was to Hezekiah what the doctrine of the Word is to us. He assured the king that in three days he would be healed, his life should be lengthened fifteen years, and his country should be delivered from the Assyrians. The suffering king was very fearful, and asked for a sign that these blessings would certainly be given. The prophet, willing to comfort him, assures the king that a sign would be granted, but it must be in accordance with his own free will. Would he have the shadow go further forward and down, or would he wish it to return and to rise up ten degrees? Evidently it is past noon, the sun is going down. The sun of Judah's prosperity had been going down since the time of Solomon. To go down further was easy; to return back, that would be the hard thing. Hezekiah had the wisdom to ask for the shadow to go back, and rise up ten degrees. This was well, and Judah's decay was arrested during his time. The sign that this would be was that the shadow went back on the sun-dial ten degrees.

It is an important spiritual truth, that whatever state of good we can understand to be desirable and yearn after, we can certainly attain. It is in fact, in embryo, already attained. We long for peace, and grieve that we do not possess it. We do interiorly possess it, and it will certainly increase, and become in due time altogether ours. "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled."

To give us a view of Divine things without the power of attainment, would be a tantalization impossible to be attributed to Infinite Love. Hence, animals have no capacity of noticing or conceiving spiritual and eternal things, because they have no power of enjoying them.

When we

What we conceive and wish, then, we can have, nay, already have in embryo. Let as never be hopeless, but know that our hope is a true prophet, and only anticipates what we shall certainly enjoy. This foretoken of a better state is represented by the shadow rising on the sun-dial. To see the truth clearly, is given us for the end, that we may love and do it. love the light, we easily see the light: we have a ground of good from which we see, and we pass in time from shade to brightness. Hence the infinite importance of getting light on our mental sun-dial. The reason why truth is covered in the world with some degree of difficulty—with shade, parable, and cloud-is that our love may be tested. If we have no desire to labour for the truth, we shall not make good use of it when we

obtain it. Better is it that we should remain without it. "Unto you our Lord said, it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but not to them which are without."

But if we are sad at our spiritual sickness and feebleness, and pray as Hezekiah did for deliverance, light will come into the mind. "Unto the upright there ariseth a light in the darkness." And in that light we see where we are and where we ought to be. We discover we have been losing time, living heedlessly, and suffering decay and degeneracy. We turn heartily to the Lord, and the light rises on our sun-dial. Hope and faith come to our help, and we are animated by the conviction that we can live a new life, that we can be conjoined to the Lord and attain a present heaven. Hezekiah was restored to health. We too can attain to new strength, and realize a new possession of heavenly life and vigour. The ten degrees up which the indicator of the sun-dial rose, would probably, in the spiritual sense, refer to the sacredness of the Divine Commandments. They are called the ten words, the ten pieces of silver. We have known the Divine law, but we have neglected it. We now perceive that it is all holy, pure, and good. It shall henceforth be our glory to love and do the Divine will. We see the Commandments are the utterances of Divine Love," for our good always." 66 'Great peace have they

that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them."

It

The light has risen ten degrees. The soul now perceives the Divine truth in fulness, and is invigorated and blessed. is assured, comforted, and cheered. It can work out its salvation, though with fear and trembling, and filled with gratitude it exclaims, I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord: I will keep thy statutes.

"O blest be His name, who in sorrow's stern hour

Hears the prayer of affliction, and sends forth His power."

The sun-dial is designated the sun-dial of Ahaz, and Ahaz was an unfaithful and wicked king. He probably obtained this sun-dial from Babylon, as we are told he had an altar, which he saw and admired, brought from Damascus. The sun-dial, however, we may gather was a true one, although it had belonged to a wicked king, and may have been derived from Babylon.

All religions include much truth, although that truth may be associated with many things not true. Pious and sincere souls have an instinct for the truth, however it may be wrapped in

error, and by that truth they strengthen their spiritual life. They scarcely see the errors of their system, and never dwell upon them. Hezekiah's being comforted and helped by the light rising on the sun-dial of Ahaz was probably intended to teach us that in each religion, however imperfect, there is a sun-dial; and if we devoutly pray to the Lord, and look believingly to Him, He will illumine our minds by that which is Divine in every form of faith, and we shall be spiritually healed. He saves in various ways; He has ten thousand methods of diffusing His love into the weak and the weary. But if the suffering heart really seeks Him, He will be found; if we knock, it will be opened; if we ask in earnest humility, unto us shall be given.

Hezekiah's life was lengthened fifteen years. Fifteen consists of two sevens and one, and corresponds to a new spiritual state, but one rather feeble. It was the fifteenth day of the second month when the Israelites commenced their journey into the wilderness. Hezekiah's condition was one struggling to be faithful, surrounded by general decay. A soul in such circumstances secures some heavenly good-what he feels to be a great blessing; but is conscious of lacking power to arrest the general downward tendency. Such a soul saves itself, but sighs that it cannot do much more, and its comparative feebleness is expressed by this number fifteen.

Yet, to be rescued from disease, to come into light and love, to enjoy a sense of spiritual life and peace,—these are great mercies, and may well inspire the soul to say, as Hezekiah did, “The living, the living, he shall praise Thee, as I do this day the father to the children shall make known Thy truth. The Lord was ready to save me; therefore will we sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord" (Isa. xxxviii. 19, 20).

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SERMON XXXVIII.

HEZEKIAH'S SICKNESS AND RECOVERY.

"And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered."-2 KINGS XX. 8.

THE character of King Hezekiah, as presented in the Holy Word, is that of a good man and a good king struggling with great difficulties. He had inherited the throne of his father Ahaz, who had been an extremely bad monarch. Ahaz had suffered idolatry to spread over the land. He copied some of the worst practices of the worst of the neighbouring nations, and under the king's example the people increased in their unhallowed habits, and the land became corrupt and degraded, very little different from the nations around.

Under these circumstances, King Ahaz no longer felt the protection of the Most High about him and his people, as it had been about David and Solomon; but he courted the alliance, and trusted in the power of the kings around, especially of the potent monarchs of Assyria. Having despised and neglected the protection of heaven, he sought the defence of the most powerful rulers of the time, and lived in fear of them, instead of relying on the arm of that God whose worship and whose law his nation had been marvellously raised up to preserve amongst men.

To the unhappy state which his father had thus impiously and unwisely governed and degraded, the good Hezekiah succeeded. He laboured to undo the mischief iniquity and folly had produced in the land. “He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all which David his father did." In one respect he gave an admirable example: he found that the brazen serpent which Moses had made had become an object of idolatry, by the superstition of the ignorant people, and he broke it to pieces. The harmless memorial of one time may become a snare to weak minds at another; and when that is the case, we learn from this example of Hezekiah, and from