HEZEKIAH BEHOLDING THE SUN-DIAL.

As soon as Hezekiah succeeded to the throne of Judah, he destroyed the high places, cut down the groves, and broke the images, to which the people had impiously offered adoration. He destroyed the brazen serpent, to which his subjects paid divine honours; and repaired the gate of the temple, ordering it to be purified and restored to its original sanctity. He was a wise and good prince. Some years after his accession he shook off the Assyrian yoke, possessed himself of the country of the Philistines, repaired and fortified the walls of Jerusalem, and put the city in a condition to withstand a vigorous siege, then threatened by the Assyrian monarch. Sennacherib had at this time subdued almost the whole kingdom of Judah, but disappointed of succours which he expected from Egypt, and his own army probably being weakened by constant exertion, he made overtures of peace to Hezekiah, which the latter thought it prudent to accept: in order, however, to fulfil the severe conditions of the Assyrian king, he was obliged to strip the gold from the temple doors. When the stipulated sum was advanced, the wily foe refused to quit the kingdom of Judah, but demanded from Hezekiah an unconditional surrender. Having received the most blasphemous letters from Sennacherib, Hezekiah went up into the temple, placed them before the Lord, and prayed for deliverance. His petition was accepted, for shortly after a hundred and eighty-five thousand men were destroyed in one night in the hostile camp. Soon after this the King of Judah fell dangerously ill, when his prayers for restoration to health were heard, and he was assured by the prophet Isaiah that he should live. But demanding a sign from the prophet, by which God's intended mercy might be confirmed to him, Isaiah said— "Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun-dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down*." Hezekiah shortly after recovered, and composed a song of thanksgiving, which the prophet has preserved,chapter xxxviii, verses 10, 22.

THE STRANGER'S SACRIFICE ACCEPTED.

"ALSO the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant: even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar."* During the captivity of the Jews, many of the heathen became proselytes to their religion; indeed, so considerable was the number of Gentile converts, that God made a revelation in their favour through the mouth of his prophet Isaiah. Though they were not admitted to similar privileges, either spiritual or civil, with the stock of Abraham, they were nevertheless encouraged by the prophetic declaration of a chosen minister of God, that in process of time many other Gentiles of different nations would be added to his church, when both Jews and Gentiles would forsake a less perfect for a purer worship, and become "one fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ the righteous." The words of the prophecy evidently have a primary reference to the temple at Jerusalem, in which there was a place set apart for the worship of proselytes, called "The court of the Gentiles." But they have also an ulterior reference to the gospel dispensation. The object of the artist has been to exhibit the picture conveyed to the prophet's mind when under the influence of the Divine afflatus. The mountain is an imaginary representation of the holy hill of Zion, upon which two proselytes have made an acceptable sacrifice unto the Lord. Seeing that the Deity has vouchsafed to receive it, and overcome by a simultaneous emotion of reverence, they have retired to a distance, and are lifting up their hands in devout acknowledgment. The universality of the Divine dispensations is here prefigured; for "God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him."