not die."

Here the relative name was the ground of hope. "O JEHOVAH, Thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty GOD, Thou hast established them for correction." The meaning here is, as Thou didst deal with the Egyptians, so Thou wilt deal with the Chaldeans. "In very deed for this I have raised thee up, for to show in thee My power; and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth" (Exod. ix. 16; Rom. ix. 17).

This might have been said of the evil spirit summarily. God has brought this vast system of creation and redemption into being for the manifestation of evil and for its destruction-to show His power over it. "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity;" and then the prophet falls back to His own finite reasoning: "Wherefore lookest Thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?" Yes, this may be so, but in the end the wicked are established for correction; and instead of murmuring, we should so supplicate grace and mercy, as to obtain it for them.

In the second chapter the prophet says: "I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved."

We must remember he had undertaken to reason with JEHOVAH concerning the heavy judgment he had seen coming upon Judah; to murmur, and to inquire why those more wicked than they should be employed as ministers of vengeance. The words of

JEHOVAH strike us as we read: "Come and let us reason together."

Then to understand His answer to Habakkuk, we must turn again to the page of history that first brought about the sentence of captivity upon Judah. There may be other allusions, and other reasons in this answer, but we must look at the original sentence, and we shall find it in 2 Kings xx., from the twelfth verse; 2 Chron. xxxii., from the twenty-second verse; Isaiah xxxix.

We must remember that Hezekiah the king of Judah had had one of the greatest prophets the world had then ever seen to be his counsellor and guide. Isaiah was to him the mouthpiece of JEHOVAH; the word of the JEHOVAH was by him. He interceded for the king, and prevailed also. The word came to him: "Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live." But in answer to his prayer, it came again by the mouth of the prophet: "I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the JEHOVAH." The king asked a sign of this, and one of the greatest that the Almighty could grant was granted to him, that the shadow upon the dial should return backward ten degrees. "And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the JEHOVAH: and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward" (2 Kings xx.). The universe stood still to witness to the fact of man's sinfulness, of His perversion of heart.

And when Sennacherib came against Judah, "Hezekiah prayed before the JEHOVAH, and said, O JEHOVAH GOD of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, Thou art the GOD, even Thou alone, of

all the kingdoms of the earth; Thou hast made heaven and earth. JEHOVAH, bow down Thine ear, and hear."

Then the word of the JEHOVAH came to him by the prophet. "Therefore, thus saith the JEHOVAH 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. . . I will defend this city to save it, for Mine own sake, and for My servant David's sake."

And I have before shown how the angel of JEHOVAH came forth that night and smote the army of the Assyrians, "an hundred fourscore and five thousand:" and how Sennacherib was slain by his sons at Nineveh (2 Kings xix.).

But now we see how responsibility rises with privilege, grace, and such acts of providential dealing. In the passages I have before referred to for this page of history, we read: "The son of the king of Babylon sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had been sick."

"And Hezekiah hearkened unto them, and showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not."

In the parallel passage in 2 Chron. xxxii. 25–31, we read: "His heart was lifted up therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem."

In the business of the ambassadors of the princes

of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, the wonder of the dial going back, and of the recovery of Hezekiah -"God left him, to try him, that He might know all that was in his heart."

God's dealings are to teach man his total depravity. He declares this throughout the Bible. "To humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart" (Deut. viii. 2-16). And hence this severe sentence upon Hezekiah, more severe than upon Moses the one might not enter Canaan, the people of the other were to endure siege, defeat, and seventy years' captivity.

"Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men ? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon.

"And he said, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that are in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them.

"And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the JEHOVAH. Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the JEHOVAH."

And then how does the selfishness of the man break forth? Because this was not to be done in his day, but in the time of his descendants, he could say: "Good is the word of the JEHOVAH which thou hast spoken."

And yet this is the history of one of the best kings Judah ever had. "He did that which was right in the sight of the JEHOVAH, according to all that David his father did." I am only teaching the corruption of human nature.

We may now turn again to the book of Habakkuk, written a hundred years afterwards, and we shall find all the elements of the more ancient history-the why and the wherefore Judah must be taken captive into Babylon. The answer of JEHOVAH seems rooted in it: "God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent."

In this construction of the word of God, how harmonious is the entire whole, how confirmatory each part of the other. One Eternal Spirit dictated all, inspired all.

"And the JEHOVAH answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

"For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

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Behold, his soul that is lifted up is not upright in him" these are almost the words in the history of Hezekiah-" but the just shall live by his faith.”

St. Paul explains this (Rom. i. 16, 17). The meaning in the ancient prophet was, the judgment proclaimed concerning Judah shall come, but every believer who is "justified by faith" (Rom. iii. 28), righteous by the imputation of Christ's righteousness, shall still live. Hezekiah died, Moses, and David died,