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king would strengthen the hands of the pious part of the nation; while those that favored idol-worship would have less hope of successful opposition to a prince so resolute and determined. Hezekiah, too, would find it easier to effect other schemes for reclaiming the people from idolatry, by an upright course at the commencement of his career, than if he wavered between duty and popularity-between the service of Jehovah and idols. By so early taking a stand on the Lord's side, he laid himself under a sort of necessity to complete the reformation. Even the idolatrous and ungodly in Judah would regard him with contempt, if he faltered in a work so vigorously begun, and turned back to the worship of graven images.

So, if the young convert is open and decided at the outset of his Christian life-if he takes counsel, not from the suggestions of expediency, but from the word of God, he will readily persevere in the ways of piety. Consistency will require that he should not afterwards live as do others, and even the ungodly will expect and demand it. When his position is once known, the world will not often attempt to insnare him in its amusements, or solicit him to adopt its pernicious customs. And not only so, but he brings himself within the range of the principle that "unto him who hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly." Grace will be imparted as he needs it, because he uses it well; and

he will go on from strength to strength in the way to heaven, because he entered it with a heart fixed, trusting in God.

Animated by the fervid spirit and exhortations of Hezekiah, the Levites and some of the priests, after purifying themselves according to the rites of the Mosaic law, set out in good earnest to purify the temple and its courts. They first cleansed the latter. In the court of the priests stood an altar of costly workmanship, which Ahaz built after the pattern of one he had seen at Damascus. On this altar he had commanded Uriah to burn the daily morning and evening sacrifices, as well as all the burnt sacrifices offered by the king or others. This monument of national apostasy and shame, the Levites, in their newly kindled zeal, would tear down with willing hands. The brazen altar which Solomon erected in the court of the priests for sacrifices to Jehovah, Ahaz had removed to the north side of the court, under pretence of reserving it for his own special use. It was now restored to its proper place in "the forefront" of the sanctuary. To supply water for the priests in the service of the temple, Solomon had also made in this court a large brazen laver, or "molten sea," about twenty feet in diameter and ten feet deep, capable of containing more than twenty thousand gallons. It was enriched with various ornaments, and stood on twelve brazen oxen; three facing to the north, three to the

south, three to the east, and three to the west. Ahaz had taken this down from the oxen which supported it, and placed it on the pavement. In the same court were ten smaller brazen vessels, five on the north side and five on the south, each containing three hundred and sixty gallons. The flesh of the victims sacrificed was washed in these. In eight days the Levites purified all the vessels in the court of the priests which Ahaz, in his infatuation, had not cut in pieces. Why he spared any we are not informed. Perhaps he reserved a part of them for the service of his idol gods. It now remained to cleanse the temple; but as the Levites were not allowed to enter the interior of the sanctuary, the priests performed this part of the work. They carried the rubbish to the porch in front of the temple, whence it was taken by the Levites and cast into the brook Kedron, on the east side of the city. "The brook Kedron is now nothing more than the dry bed of a winter's torrent, bearing marks of being occasionally swept over by a large volume of water. No stream flows here now except during the heavy rains of winter, when the waters descend into it from the neighboring hills. Yet even in winter there is no constant flow."

No mention is made of the high-priest, who ought to have taken the lead in this transaction. Perhaps Uriah, who was high-priest in the reign of Ahaz, and connived at the introduction of idolatry,

was still alive, and indisposed to favor the reformation. Indeed, the priests as a body seem to have been less zealous than the Levites in coöperating with Hezekiah. They may have been more under the influence of the late king and his court than their humbler brethren. Apostasy in religion and corruption in morals do not so often originate among the common people, as among those higher in station, and accounted wiser by the world.

The cleansing of the temple and its courts was begun on the first day of the first month, and finished on the sixteenth day of the same. This was not the first day of the civil year, which among the Jews began with the first new moon in October, but of the ecclesiastical year, which began with the first new moon in April. The work was finished on the second day of the feast of the passover. It was now too late for celebrating the feast at the usual time, and the people, long unaccustomed to observe the rites of their religion, had not assembled at Jerusalem.

As soon as the priests and Levites had reported to Hezekiah that the purification was completed, he rose early, gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the temple. Many of the pious people of Jerusalem too might be seen through the dim light, wending their way towards the sacred gates. Long debarred from the privilege, they were glad to hear the invitation sounding through their streets, "Let

us go into the house of the Lord." To their excited minds, the flitting shadows might seem a fit emblem of heathen deities retiring from the temporary occupation of the holy mount; while the beams of the morning sun bursting over Olivet and illuminating the temple, might aptly represent the return of Jehovah to "beautify his sanctuary, and make the place of his feet glorious."

On this first morning for renewing the public worship of the God of Israel, Hezekiah and the chief men of the city did not come to the altar without a gift. "And they brought seven bullocks and seven lambs and seven he-goats, for a sin-offering for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary and for Judah." One bullock was the usual sin-offering for the whole congregation; but on extraordinary occasions the number was greater. And well might Hezekiah think more than a common sin-offering became the reöpening of the temple. This would impress the people with a deeper sense of their guilt. Standing on the north side of the altar of burnt-offering, the king and the rulers laid their hands on the heads of the victims, in token that these were substituted in their own place, confessed the sin of the nation in breaking their covenant with Jehovah, and implored a restoration to his favor. The Levites then killed the victims, while the priests received the blood in vessels prepared for that purpose, and sprinkled it at the foot and on the sides and horns

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