eyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken Him, and have turned away
their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs.
7. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the
lamps, and have not burnt incense, nor offered burnt-offerings in the
holy place unto the God of Israel. 8. Wherefore the wrath of the Lord
was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He hath delivered them to trouble,
to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes. 9. For, lo,
our fathers have fallen by the sword; and our sons and our daughters
and our wives are in captivity for this. 10. Now it is in mine heart
to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that His fierce wrath
may turn away from us. 11. My sons, be not now negligent: for the Lord
hath chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and that ye should
minister unto Him, and burn incense.'--2 CHRON. xxix. 1-11.


Hezekiah, the best of the later kings, had the worst for his father,
and another almost as bad for his son. His own piety was probably
deepened by the mad extravagance of his father's boundless idolatry,
which brought the kingdom to the verge of ruin. Action and reaction
are equal and contrary. Saints grown amidst fashionable and deep
corruption are generally strong, and reformers usually arise from the
midst of the systems which they overthrow. Hezekiah came to a
tottering throne and an all but beggared nation, ringed around by
triumphant enemies. His brave young heart did not quail. He sought
'first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness,' and of the two
pressing needs for Judah, political peace and religious purity, he
began with the last. The Book of Kings tells at most length the civil
history; the Book of Chronicles, as usual, lays most stress on the
ecclesiastical. The two complete each other. The present passage gives
a beautiful picture of the vigorous, devout young king setting about