books," and clay tablets on which were written many things that threw light on the Bible history, utterly hidden for 2500 years. One of these books is the 6-sided Taylor cylinder found among the ruins of Nineveh. On this Sennacherib gives his own account of the siege of Jerusalem. A part of it we quote: "But as for Hezekiah of Judah, who had not submitted to my yoke, forty-six of his strong cities, together with numberless fortresses and small towns in their

neighborhood, I invested and took by means of the battering of rams and the assault of scaling-ladders (or siege towers), the attack of the foot-soldiers, mines, bills, and axes. I brought out from the midst of them, and counted as spoil 200,150 persons, young and old, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep without number. As for himself, I shut him up like a bird in a cage in his royal city of Jerusalem. I built a line of forts about him, and whoever came forth from the gate of his city, I punished."

Picture of Scene. George Adam Smith pictures the approaching danger as seen from the walls of Jerusalem. Signs of the Assyrian advance were given in the sky, and night after night the watchers on Mount Zion, seeing the glare in the west, must have speculated which of the cities of Judah was being burned. Clouds of smoke across the heavens, from prairie and forest fires, told how war, even if it passed, would leave a trail of famine; and men thought with breaking hearts of the villages and fields, heritage of the tribes of old, that were now bare to the foot and the fire of the foreigner. Then came touch of the enemy, the appearance of armed bands, vistas down Jerusalem's favorite valleys of chariots, squadrons of horsemen emerging upon the plateaus to north and west of the city, heavy siegetowers and swarms of men innumerable."

The Taylor Cylinder.

Inscribed on it is an account by Sennacherib, of

his victory over Hezekiah. Found at Nineveh in 1830. Now at the British Museum. It is 14 inches high, and is written in the cuneiform characters.

Another very vivid Picture is shown when the vast army sent by Sennacherib from Lachish, had come so close to Jerusalem, that the Assyrian leader the Rabshakeh could speak loud enough to be heard by those on the city walls.

The Rabshakeh tried to persuade King Hezekiah and the leaders of the Jews to surrender the city to the Assyrians without a battle. The interviews are among the most dramatic scenes in all history. Let the scholars briefly state the Rabshakeh's defiant arguments, each describing one or more of the scenes.

1. Trusting in Egypt for help, 18: 19-21.

2. Hezekiah had destroyed Jehovah's altars, v. 22.

3. No army able to defend the city, vs. 23, 24.

4. He declares that Jehovah told him to destroy the city, v. 25.

5. He appeals to the people to force the king to yield, vs. 26-32.

6. He tells how everywhere the Assyrians were victorious, vs. 33-35; 19: 10-13. The Rabshakeh did not know or realize that Jehovah, the one true God, was the Almighty Ruler and King.

III. AN IMPRESSIVE PICTURE, HEZEKIAH THE KING AND ISAIAH THE PROPHET JOIN IN A PRAYER MEETING, 2 Chron. 32: 20; 2 Kings 19: 1. King Hezekiah rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth, and went to the house of God, while his messengers sought out the prophet Isaiah, to know what to do. He did all he could, as well as prayed. The prayer expressed the deepest need, the highest faith, the utmost earnestness, the wisest plea, the highest motive. Hezekiah saw before him captivity, suffering, probably death, the loss of his kingdom, the extinction of his line, the exile of his people; but above all he saw the fall of true religion, the dishonor of God's name, a religious and moral loss to the world. We should pray for temporal blessings, for whatever we need, but at the same time we should never let the desire for earthly things overshadow the larger and more important spiritual

interests; but rather, as in Hezekiah's case, the pressure of personal need should make more intense the desire for God's cause and kingdom.

United Prayer. We learn from 2 Chron. 32: 20, that Isaiah joined with Hezekiah in his earnest prayer. Prophet and king, civil and religious interests, were at one. Thus were proved true the words spoken seven centuries later, "That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them " (Matt. 18: 19, 20).

Praying and Working. Both the king and the prophet worked as well as prayed, and showed their faith by their works. Isaiah was continually laboring with the people, to persuade them to a better life. The king took counsel with his princes, built walls and towers, and prepared arms and shields, and encouraged the people to

be strong and courageous, and not to be afraid of the Assyrian king, "for there be more with us than with him " (2 Chron. 32: 6, 7).

Waiting for the Answer. Why did God wait for Hezekiah to plead so long and earnestly? Why does he wish us to wrestle in prayer? (1) It is not because God is unwilling to bestow good things, or must be overpersuaded, for he is more ready to give than we are to ask. (2) It is that his gifts may bring moral benefits, and save from sin. It is to cherish and cultivate our faith, bringing us into closer relations to God. Had the deliverance come to Hezekiah and his people without prayer, they would have looked upon the great boon as some unexpected event of nature; and they would not have been made to see God's hand in it, his love, his care, his power, his desire for their good. The very best part of the blessing would have been left out. (3) It is to make us fit to receive, to intensify our desire and appreciation of the things God would bestow. As Jeremy Taylor says, "Our prayers upbraid our spirits when we beg tamely for those things for which we ought to die; which are more precious than imperial sceptres, richer than the spoils of the sea or the treasures of Indian hills." There is no use in furnishing large measures of food to those who have no appetite, nor of giving libraries and colleges to those who care nothing for learning. The great difficulty with all God's best gifts is on our part, to make us able to receive and use them.

The Greater Blessing. "It's hard at times to believe that there is Some One watching over the affairs of this world," said Jack Graham to his minister. "For example, here is an account in to-day's paper," he continued, "where twenty miners were entombed by an explosion. The manager declared that another explosion might occur at any moment. Any attempt at relief would be very dangerous business. Yet three men came forward, recognizing the danger, but ready to risk their lives in the attempt to save their fellows. The car started down with the three men in it. Before it reached the bottom, another explosion took place, and all three were immediately killed. Can it be possible that there is a God of love ruling the universe when such noble heroism is no better protected than that ? "

20. Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.

21. This is the word that 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.

22. 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.

28. Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will 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.

Doctor Brown sat thinking before he spoke.

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Suppose, Jack," he said, at length, " that God always miraculously guarded the lives of all heroes, so that no hero were allowed to lose his life in noble adventure? Would that seem to you a better-conducted universe than the one we now have ? " "Of course it would!" answered Jack, with conviction. "Is there any question about it ?"

Well, let us see. Then the next time an explosion occurred in a mine and men were imprisoned, any man in the crowd could step forward and offer to go to the relief carelessly, in the absolute certainty that he would return alive. He would not run the slightest risk. But by the same token, heroism and all possibility of heroism would be taken from the life of the world. Nothing would be left to be heroic about. There never would be the slightest risk. What a tawdry thing human life would be if there were never anything daring and heroic in it!"

Jack sat thinking over the clergyman's words. "Doctor," he said, earnestly, "I can see that it's better for us to have a world where the most awful tragedies do occur than it would be to have a world where no moral heroism could ever inspire the race. Youth's Companion.

How is this? Are there not opportunities for heroism where there are no tragedies? How about the perfect world for which we are working and hoping?

IV. GLORIOUS PROMISE GOD SENDS AN ANSWER BY ISAIAH, 19: 20-34. Then Isaiah having received the message, sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel. That which thou hast prayed (Am. R., "whereas thou hast prayed ") to me against Sennacherib. . . I have heard (" thee," Am. R.). He would have them understand deliverance was from him.

21. The virgin the daughter of Zion. Zion, the citadel of Jerusalem, stands for the city, like a beautiful virgin "unviolated by a conqueror.' Hath despised thee, Assyria, and laughed thee to scorn. She defies you, and mocks at all your threats, because she is safe, not in her own strength, but in that of the Almighty God, her protector. The Assyrians were warring not merely against men and rocky fortresses, but against the invisible principalities and powers of the universe.

22. Reproached, Am. R., "defied."

The Lord, in the verses following (23-27), declares that he permitted the Assyrian attack. The Assyrians imagined that they were doing only their own will, and could do what they pleased. But Jehovah declared that Assyria was but a rod in his hand for the punishment of sin, " though he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so," but when the "rod" had done its work, then Jehovah said to him, as to the sea, in Job, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed."

28. Because of thy rage (Am. R., "raging") against me, and because thy tumult (Am. R.," thine arrogancy") is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose. As was done with wild bulls to lead them, and as the Assyrians are represented on their tablets as doing with their captives. And my bridle. Guiding the Assyrian power where he will, as a bridle guides a horse. I will turn thee back. To Assyria.

29. And this shall be a sign unto thee to Judah. "A sign is a thing, or an event or an action intended as a pledge of the divine certainty of another." Delitzsch. This sign was given to Hezekiah. Such things as grow of themselves. "For two

29. And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.

30. And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

31. 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.

32. 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 shield, nor cast a bank against it.

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

years the regular operations of agriculture shall be suspended," by the occupation of the Assyrians, but the third year everything would go on as usual. The Assyrians prevented agriculture, and it was too late in the season to plant for a good harvest the following year. "Wetzstein states that at the present day, unless the ground has been several times broken up in the previous summer, the seed will be lost in the ground." Rev. Dr. F. Skinner, in Cambridge Bible.

30. The remnant that is escaped. The Assyrians had already destroyed a large part of Judah and carried away two hundred thousand of the people, according to Sennacherib's account. Yet God would not permit the nation to be destroyed, but this remnant, like the stump of a tree cut off, should again take root downward, and bear fruit.

The Lord sent an angel. pose "that an angel went The word angel by God to accomplish his God's angels or messengers.

one.

32. Concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city. The promise was clear, direct, positive, and it was fulfilled. Nor cast

a bank (Am. R., "a mound "). 33. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return.

34. For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake. Not because the people deserved it, but because of the kingdom of God promised to come through David. That kingdom must not perish, for in it lay the hope of the world, and God's plans for redeeming men.

V. A DRAMATIC PICTURE, THE MYSTERIOUS DESTRUCTION OF THE ASSYRIAN ARMY, vs. 35, 36. Dr. Johnson was right in saying that we are not to supabout with a sword in his hand, stabbing them one by means a messenger, and is applied to any means used purposes. Thus in Psa. 104: 4 the winds are said to be In 2 Sam. 24: 16 the plague, the most likely agent of

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

35. And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

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this disaster to the Assyrians, is pictured as a destroying agent. But whether the means of destruction was a blast of the simoon, or sudden outburst of plague, or furious panic, or sudden assault" (Farrar), it was under the direction of supernatural powers.

And smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they (Am. R., 66 men ") arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

The Bible does not say where the destruction of Sennacherib's forces occurred. Herodotus, in his account of the event (Herod. II, 14), places it at Pelusium (Sin) in the extreme northeast corner of the Nile delta, a swampy spot whose malaria may have been the agent of destruction.

Nor does the Bible say that the whole Assyrian army was destroyed. Only so many as prevented any further attack on the Jews.

"Of this sudden destruction of his host Sennacherib has left no record, and there is no mention of it on any of the monuments. But kings were never given to recording or publishing their defeats." This is both natural and common. For a modern instance, any one who has visited Napoleon's tomb at Paris can notice that while the sides are full of names of places where his battles were fought, Waterloo, the scene of his great defeat, is not recorded there.

"The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea
Where the blue waves roll nightly on deep Galilee.
"Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green
That host with their banners at sunset were seen.
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strewn.
"For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed.
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still!

"And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,

The lances uplifted, the trumpets unblown,

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword

Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord." - - Byron.

The Story of Herodotus. The Greek historian, who visited Egypt in the fifth century B.C., tells in the second book of his histories a story, which he had heard from the priests of the temple of Ptah in Memphis, of Sennacherib's army having been put out of action by mice (Herod. II, 141). By night a multitude of field-mice ate up the quivers, bow-strings and shield-straps of the Assyrians; so that they were unable to resist the attack of the Egyptian army. Prof. G. A. Smith thinks that "since the mouse was a symbol of sudden destruction, and even of the plague, this story of Herodotus seems to be merely a picturesque form of a tradition that pestilence broke out in the Assyrian camp. The parallel with the Bible narrative is close."

The Tragedy of Napoleon. After his triumphant march to Moscow, Napoleon was defeated by the soft falling of flakes of snow from the sky. Out of 450,000 soldiers, only 20,000 returned, weary and exhausted, to France.

"A thousand times by night the Syrian hosts have died;

A thousand times the vanquished right hath risen glorified.".

- Henry van Dyke.

The Importance of the Event which forms the subject of the lesson to-day is shown by the fact that its history is given in three books of the Bible, and probably referred to in another, occupying seven or eight chapters, besides the clay cylinder on which Sennacherib made his own record: Isaiah 22, 33, 36, 37, and as Prof. G. A. Smith and many modern critics think, chapter 1 in large part; 2 Kings 18, 19; 2 Chronicles 32; and probably Psalm 46.