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70

SERMON V.

MANASSEH'S REPENTANCE EVINCED BY ITS

FRUITS.

2 Chron. xxxiii. 14-17.

Now after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish-gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah. And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. And he repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace-offerings and thank-offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. Neverthe

less the people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the Lord their God only.

SUCH were the effects of calamity on the mind of Manasseh, king of Judah. He became quite an altered man. Those very citizens of Jerusalem who had before seen him desecrating the temple, profaning the altars, and dishonouring the Lord his God, now beheld him repairing and rebuilding the sacred places, dismantling the idols, and promoting the worship of Jehovah. The headstrong profligate, whom no admonitions were able to restrain, was at last subdued by adversity. He came forth from the fiery furnace purified and refined, an exemplary monarch, a righteous man, a conspicuous example to all succeeding generations of the great use of affliction, as a means of subjugating the human heart to the power of religion.

His first act, upon returning to Jerusalem, was the construction of a wall without the city. This proceeding is not to be overlooked, but well deserves our consideration; because we are now tracing the whole series of Manasseh's doings, consequent upon his change of mind.

For the preceding verse closed with the emphatic announcement, "Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God." We shall therefore discover an inverse order of actions, when we compare the conduct of the enlightened penitent with the conduct of the unawakened sinner; when we contrast the holy zeal of the man that knew God, with the sacrilegious career of the man that knew him not.

True religion is closely connected with patriotism. The righteous Jew could weep for the calamities of his country, as well as triumph in her success. And, even in a foreign land, the sorrowing captives remembered their beloved city, and suspended their unstrung harps upon the willows; sitting down by the waters of Babylon, and weeping at the tender recollection of their home. Manasseh, too, in the same spirit, had doubtless thought much of his native land and her desolation, as memory called up to the pensive sufferer her palaces, her bulwarks, her streets, and her citizens, so recently pillaged and profaned by the hand of the spoiler. As religious feelings grew upon him, these patriotic sentiments must have gone on increasing in

strength and fervour.

Accordingly we find

that, on his release, he set about fortifying Jerusalem, that it might be less accessible to the enemy in case of another invasion. Besides which, he stationed garrisons in all the fenced cities, for the better security and protection of that land which he had so desecrated by his crimes. His mind appears to have been overwhelmed with a sense of the injuries which his country had experienced from the banishment of that holy religion which was the palladium of her safety, the foundation of her consequence, and the well-spring of her glory. He therefore applies himself, with all the energies of his soul, to the reparation of those breaches; thus evincing the sincerity of his repentance, by a preeminent regard for the national welfare.

But he did not stop here. We are no sooner informed of his services in behalf of the city, than we hear of his glowing energies for the honour of his God, whom he had begun to know at length, after a life of idolatry. You remember that, as the climax of his iniquity, he had set up an idol in the house of the Lord, that sacred temple wherein Jehovah had especially set his

own name. He now gives orders for the immediate dislodgment of this abomination. Altars, images, priests, and the whole train of infamy that accompanied the celebration of these orgies of Satan, were demolished, cast out, sent away, trodden under foot. There was a grand purgation of the city and the temple. Holiness began to be reinstated in her throne. The sacrifices, that had been so long discontinued, were now resumed. Peace-offerings and thankofferings were again resorted to. The people were summoned by a royal proclamation to serve the Lord God of Israel; and all promised fairly for the restitution of happiness to the nation. It appears, however, that there was still a remnant of evil in the land; for sacrifices were performed in the high places: although we find that, on this occasion, no idols were recognized, but "the Lord God only" was worshipped.

Among the several reflections occurring to the mind from this portion of our subject, the most prominent is the nature of true repentance. It springs from a knowledge of God, producing hatred of sin and self-abasement. "I have heard of thee," said holy Job, "by the hearing

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