ready, and his army put into good order. Yet did he not trust in his own strength, but sent his chiefs, clothed in sackcloth, to desire the prayers of Isaiah, and when he had recovered from his illness, he went himself on the appointed third day, arrayed in the same mournful garb, and carrying the profane letters of Sennacherib in his hand, to the temple of the Lord of hosts, to deprecate his wrath. Again the prophet was commanded to assure him, that "the King of Assyria should not come into the city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with a shield, nor cast a bank against it, but should return by the way that he came."

The same night, the "destroying angel" went through the Assyrian camp-and the morning light discovered the dead bodies of an hundred and eighty-five thousand men to the astonished chief! Terror-struck by the awful spectacle, he retired precipitately with the remnant, leaving his tents, richly stored with silver and gold, to the rejoicing Israelites !

CATHERINE. I have somewhere read, that this sudden destruction was caused by lightning?

MRS. M. It was more likely effected by the Simoom, a hot and suffocating wind, which, in the east, is often fatal to vast numbers, particularly in the night, whilst sleeping. This conjecture obtains strength from the words of Isaiah, in his encouraging message to Hezekiah. "I will send a blast upon him, and he shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land." The sacred text is silent as to the means by which this great army was destroyed-no doubt it was by the agency of some natural cause. But both parts of the prophecy were fulfilled; Sennacherib returned hastily to Nineveh,

and there fell by the sword of his own son, whilst he worshipped in the house of his god Nisroch.

FANNY. The miracle of bringing back the shadow on the sun-dial, is too strange-too singular to be understood. Can you tell us in what manner the effect was produced?

"

MRS. M. Nothing more is communicated to us than. the acomplishment of the sign promised: that the sun did return ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down ;" and it is not for us "to be wise above what is written.' It is our business to examine and to be satisfied with the evidences for the inspiration of the scripture-we shall then never stumble at miracles. Prophecy was altogether miraculous, and its fulfilment, in examples without number, takes away every pretext for incredulity. Miracles are never spoken of as common events, but as things entirely out of the common course of nature, and produced for some special end. This retrogression of the heavenly bodies, if such it was, and a similar event in the life of Joshua, were so far different from others, that the effect was extended beyond the observation of the persons for whom the mighty deed was performed. Hence an opportunity was afforded to the enemies of the Jewish religion to contrádict their public records, had they attempted an imposition. But no such question has come down to us. On the contrary, the history of the Chinese is said to speak of a day of uncommon length; corresponding with the time of Joshua. And in the case of Hezekiah, ambassadors came from Babylon, to congratulate him on his recovery, and " to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land.”

The honour of an embassy, however, from Babylon, and that too occasioned by a distinguished favour from the

king of kings, was fatal to the pious monarch. The latent spark of human pride was awakened-all the splendour of his palace was displayed, the strength of his armoury and his treasury, replenished by the spoils which the terrified Sennacherib had left in his abandoned camp, were exhibited to the Babylonish princes.

We should have expected to hear him who had published a memorial of his sickness, and a humble acknowledgment of the mercy which had restored him, giving the glory of his riches to the Supreme Benefactor-" the Giver of every good and perfect gift." But we read with pity, that "his heart was lifted up ;" that he rendered not according to the benefit received-wherefore his prophetic monitor now told him, that of his treasures, nothing should be left but the day would come when both they, and his children, should be taken away by the very people who had witnessed his vain glory.

The remainder of Hezekiah's life was exempt from any disturbance, either foreign or domestic. His whole reign of twenty-nine years, having been highly beneficial to the nation, his death was deeply lamented, and he was buried with great pomp, in the highest place of the royal sepulchre, beside the most illustrious of their monarchs. (B. C. 698.)

In the reign of Hezekiah, commentators place the prophecy of Nahum; for no date being prefixed, it can only be ascertained by internal evidence, and by a comparison of one portion of history with another. Bishop Lowth, a most accomplished critic on Hebrew poetry, pronounces the book of Nahum, "a complete and perfect poem, of which the conduct and imagery are truly admirable." In the first chapter, after celebrating, in lofty terms, the power,

and the justice, and the mercy of Jehovah, he promises deliverance to Hezekiah from the Assyrians, who, having put an end to the kingdom of Israel, now menaced that of Judah. Then, turning to Nineveh, he denounces the ruin of "the bloody city," which is all full of lies and robbery -"whose merchants were multiplied as the stars of Heaven." "It shall come to pass," cries the prophet, " that all they that look upon thee, shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste, who will bemoan her ?"

In Hezekiah's reign, we had the refreshing spectacle of an excellent son succeeding a most unworthy father. The picture is now reversed, and we are to behold all the glories of his wisdom, and the monuments of his piety, prostrated by a degenerate successor. Manasseh not only went beyond the excesses of all the former kings of Judah, but is said to have done "worse than the heathens," who had been extirpated for their sins; filling Jerusalem, in the prodigality of his wickedness, with the blood of those who refused to comply with his detestable requisitions. Amongst these meritorious martyrs, the murder of the venerable Isaiah is believed to have cried aloud for vengeance on the polluted land.

The inspired records inform us, that Isaiah prophecied more than sixty years, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah! but leave us ignorant of the time of his death. Traditions, which are credited by respectable commentators, represent him to have "been sawn asunder," by Manasseh, whose guilt was aggravated beyond measure, by the circumstance of being the son-in-law of this inspired teacher!

CHARLES. Dear mother, I almost fear to ask, what dreadful punishment was inflicted on such a monster ?

MRS. M. Chains and captivity in Babylon were his recompense-a recompense more lenient than he had earned, but the deepest humiliation, in his dungeon, procured his pardon and restoration to Jerusalem, where he reigned thirty-four years afterwards, sincerely endeavouring, by the most religious care of his people, to atone for his crimes. Yet he could not obliterate the sad traces of memory: for when" he slept with his fathers," he was refused a place in the "sepulchre of the kings,"-an honour awarded only to the most virtuous of the race.

Amon, in a short reign, imitated the vices of his father, Manasseh, but did not profit by his misfortunes. The people however remembered them, and put him to death at the end of two years. Josiah, his son, yet a child, was then proclaimed king.

Josiah, in his youth, evinced the most estimable qualities, and proved to be equal, if not superior, in piety, to the very best of his predecessors. At the age of sixteen he was entrusted with the government, and, having carefully studied the laws, immediately commenced the destruction of every remnant of irreligion which Manasseh had neglected, or Amon had revived; and the priests were commanded to examine the state of the treasury, and apply it faithfully to a thorough repair of the temple.

FANNY. With what pleasure would he have listened to the instruction of such a preceptor as the sublime Isaiah, had he remained till his day!

MRS. M. That deficiency, however, was made up to him by JEREMIAH, who was called to the prophetic office in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign, and continued his exhortation from that time, to the final dissolution of the state.