the danger increased, the prophet repeatedly proclaimed these stupendous truths (14: 24-27; 17: 12-14). The basis of his predictions was the realization that the God of Judah was the Lord of hosts whose "hand is stretched out upon all the nations, and whose purpose none can disannul” (14: 27). That he would allow this arrogant monster of greed and cruelty to crush completely his chosen people was incredible.

While Isaiah was predicting his downfall, Sennacherib was completing the conquest of the Philistine towns, and sending detachments of his army up the valleys of Judah (Isa. 22:7). Forty-six of its cities were captured. According to the conqueror, over two hundred thousand Jewish captives were dragged away, together with huge spoil, consisting of horses, mules, asses, camels, oxen, and innumerable sheep. The territory thus ravaged was divided between their old enemies, the kings of Ashdod, Ekron, and Gaza, to make the humiliation greater; and a grinding tribute was imposed. Hezekiah was shut up "like a caged bird within his city," and the walls encircled with siege towers so that none could escape. For a time Hezekiah offered a resistance. Isaiah 22:1-14 reflects some of the details of the seige: the armory was put in readiness for attack, the waters collected in the lower pool, and a reservoir made between the two walls for the water of the old pool. The chronicler adds (II Chron. 32) that all the fountains without the city were closed, and the defences strengthened. Isaiah 22: 10 also states that certain houses within the city were broken down to fortify the wall. The main army of Sennacherib, however, did not advance against Jerusalem, because it was still occupied in Philis

tia, or possibly because the scant supply of water furnished by the barren hills of Judah rendered it impracticable.

III. The Defiance of Isaiah. The terror of Jerusalem and her king was not strange. To the human eye the fate of the city was sealed. We, looking back, see it on all its sides. They in the very midst of perils could see no ray of hope. But it was in reality one of the great campaigns, one of the "decisive battles of the world." "It was a crisis as grave as when Persia threatened to intercept the rising civilization of Greece, or Vandals and Moors to destroy the Christianity of Europe." It was as momentous as the issue drawn between the Roman Papacy and the English Church, or between the Pope and Luther, out of which came the freedom of religious thought and the strength of modern civilization. It was not strange that to Hezekiah and his Jewish politicians the great question was whether they could save Jerusalem and themselves. But Isaiah saw deeper. It was not the king's throne and the triumph of his policies, but rather it was the saving of the Jewish faith, and the spiritual life of the world. It was this clear vision and his unshaken confidence in the Divine purpose of God for the world, that made Isaiah great beyond all other Hebrew prophets.

"Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria:

"This is the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

"Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.

"By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast

said, By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the height of his border, and the forest of his Carmel.

"But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.

"Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up into mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

"And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth of the same: and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.

"And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:

"For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

"Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it.

"By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.

"For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

"Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

"So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh" (Isaiah 37: 21-37).

IV. Isaiah's Prophecy. Sennacherib himself never claims to have captured Jerusalem; and though he survived this expedition twenty years, and was subsequently in numerous military undertakings, he never renewed the attempt against it. "Never" says Driver, "had a prophet predicted more boldly, never was a prediction more bril

liantly fulfilled." Whether the blow which fell on Sennacherib's army was due to a supernatural intervention or resulted from natural causes, its occurrence in time to save the Jewish state was a coincidence which no political forecast could have anticipated, no estimate of probabilities calculated. Yet Isaiah's foreknowledge of it was of long standing, certain, and precise. Not once but repeatedly, even before Sennacherib's army had appeared on the north of Palestine, and while all seemed calm on the political horizon, he had announced, not merely the distress in which before long Jerusalem would find herself, but the unexpected and startling intervention by which she would be. released from it. The very first utterance, in the parable of God's lion (Isaiah 29: 1-8) speaks as distinctly as any Zion is represented as closely besieged-"But the multitude of the enemies shall become as small dust, and as the flitting chaff the multitude of the terrible ones, and it shall come to pass in a moment suddenly." Read: Isaiah 31:8; 10: 33, 34; 14: 25; 18: 5; 33: 3, 10-12; and all of 37. We have here the two-fold nature of the prophet.

First, the prophet is a religious leader, a man of supreme spiritual power and insight. He strikes below all superficial motives and methods, down to the underlying principles. Just so Abraham Lincoln struck below all political chicanery and double-play as he faced the question of human slavery. He moved straight towards the accomplishment of the divine purpose, with as clear a vision as that which filled the eyes of Isaiah.

Second, the prophet sometimes, but not always, has the gift of prevision. No Hebrew prophet had this in a more exalted sense than did Isaiah. With him it existed in a brilliance and power which are remarkable.

Social and Religious Reformation

Lesson Passages: II Kings 22:1-11; 23: 1-12.

According to our chronological table, there was a period of about fifty years between Hezekiah and Josiah. Manasseh and Amon occupied the throne.

I. The Revival of Paganism under Manasseh. Manasseh's long reign of over forty years had witnessed a revival of Paganism so extreme and powerful as to recall the darkest experiences of Ahab's rule. We must remember that there had always been this latent tendency to idolatry in the Jewish nation. To use the modern phrase, there seems to have been the two parties, each struggling for ascendency, the Jehovistic and the Pagan. The Pagan party was, it has been supposed, popular with the Jewish aristocracy. The old movement for the establishment of a kingdom in place of the theocracy grew out of the desire to put the affairs of Israel on the same basis as those of surrounding nations. Israel was a small nation in the midst of kingdoms and empires. The only government known to the world of that day was that of kings and nobles. The only religion of the world was that of idolatry. Israel stood apart, a small nation, inhabiting a small and narrow strip of mountain land between great world powers. The whole atmosphere of the world was against them. Its social and governmental and religious standards were antagonistic to the peculiar Jewish ideals. Whenever in Jewish history we see the rising self-assertion of the idolatrous party, we find it led by those identified with the wealthy