The permanence of the written Word, the providence that has watched
over it, the romantic history of its preservation through ages of
neglect, and the imperishable gift to the world of an objective
standard of duty, remaining the same from age to age, are all
suggested by this reappearance of the forgotten Law.

It may suggest, too, that honest efforts after reformation are usually
rewarded by clearer knowledge of God's will. If Hilkiah had not been
busy in setting wrong things right, he would not have found the book
in its dark hiding-place. We are told that the coincidence of the
discovery at the nick of time is suspicious. So it is, if you do not
believe in Providence. If you do, the coincidence is but one instance
of His sending gifts of the right sort at the right moment. It is not
the first time nor the last that the attempt to keep God's law has led
to larger knowledge of the law. It is not the first time nor the last
that God has sent to His faithful servants an opportune gift. What the
world calls accidental coincidence deeper wisdom discerns to be the
touch of God's hand.

Again, the discovery reminds us that the true basis of all religious
reform is the Word of God. Josiah had begun to restore the Temple, but
he did not know till he heard the Law read how great the task was
which he had taken in hand. That recovered book gave impulse and
direction to his efforts. The nearest parallel is the rediscovery of
the Bible in the sixteenth century, or, if we may take one incident as
a symbol of the whole, Luther's finding the dusty Latin Bible among
the neglected convent books. The only reformation for an effete or
secularised church is in its return to the Bible. Faded flowers will
lift up their heads when plunged in water. The old Bible, discovered
and applied anew, must underlie all real renovation of dead or