PLEASURES OF ACTIVITY.

Be always employed. Thou wilt never be better pleased, than when thou hast something to do; for business, by its motion, brings heat and life to the spirits, but idleness corrupts them like standing water.

Extracts from Family Maxims.
(By HANNAH KILHAM.)

GOOD GOVERNMENT.

THEY Who would guide or govern well, should have their own minds well governed.

GOODNESS LEADS TO GOODNESS.

Goodness incites to goodness-and where the law of kindness rules, there is the greatest power in ruling; yet true love is quick-sighted, and looks beyond the present moment.

TRUE LOVE.

True love will never allow a parent or a master to indulge any under his care in bad dispositions or wrong conduct. A good parent cannot allow his child to feed on poison;-bad temper is poison-wrong conduct is poison.

BAD HABITS.

Beware of the beginnings of bad habits: the worst habits are acquired, not at once, but by degrees.

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.

Cherish a religious care for the best interests of your children. Endeavour to direct their minds to Him who is the ever-living source of goodness; by whose Almighty Power all were created, and are kept in being. Let religious instruction be given always with seriousness and affection.

CARE OF THE HELPLESS.

Take good care of those who cannot take care of themselves, as helpless infants, infirm persons, and sick persons.

STEADY COMMAND, AND CHEERFUL OBEDIENCE.

Let commands be given always with steadiness and kindness, and obedience be returned with affection and cheerfulness.

HOME.

Use every endeavour to make home a scene of happiness and satisfaction, that all may return to it with willingness and pleasure.

DIRECTIONS IN SEASON.

Let all be well instructed in the duties and business required of them. Give timely directions, and avoid unkind reflections.

GOOD-WILL IN FAMILIES.

Better is the lowliest fare where love and good-will prevail, than the greatest dainties with discord and contention.

ANGRY PASSIONS.

Angry passions blind the judgment: they often provoke bad feelings in return, and lead to many evils.

WATCHFULNESS.

"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation;" and never indulge a temper towards any which thou wouldst be ashamed to shew if all the world beheld thee. Hast thou not a higher witness in the eye of thy Creator?

FORBEARANCE.

"Bear and forbear;" endeavour to 66 overcome evil with good," and to "live peaceably with all." "Better is he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city."

ORDER.

Order will make our duty and business easy and agreeable, and the chief point of order is a right state of mind.

GOOD USE OF TIME.

Make good use of time. Remember the time which is once gone is gone for ever.

PART V., consisting of four chapters, comprises the historical part of the book. Chap. xxxvi. relates the history of Sennacherib's invasion. To this, many of Isaiah's prophecies had referred; and therefore their fulfilment is fitly inserted. Several defenced cities of Judah had already fallen under this powerful enemy, and he now sent forward Rabshakeh, one of his officers, towards Jerusalem with a mighty army. Rabshakeh, in obtaining an audience with the state officers, sent an insolent and blasphemous message to Hezekiah, depreciating his own resources of defence, contemning his allies, and ridiculing his confidence in God; then turning to the people in general, who stood around, he endeavoured to draw them away from their allegiance to Hezekiah, and to engage their subjection to Sennacherib. Ch. xxxvii. Hezekiah indeed had not the visible means of defence against the power of his formidable enemies, yet he was not destitute of succour. With every expression of humility and dependence, he betook himself to the house of the Lord, and intreated also the In this course he was prayers of the prophet Isaiah. probably directed and encouraged by the accepted and recorded prayers of his pious ancestor Solomon, at the dedication of the temple. (2 Chron. vi.) Isaiah returned a message of encouragement from the Lord,

promising that the enemy should hear a rumour of war, which should compel his hasty return to his own land, where he should shortly afterwards perish by the sword. Accordingly, Rabshakeh was immediately called off to meet the King of Ethiopia, but left a threatening and blasphemous letter to Hezekiah. Again the pious king betook himself to the house of his God, and there spread forth his complaints, and again received an answer of mercy, assuring him that his prayer was accepted, and his confidence well placed, and that Jehovah would effectually defend his chosen people, and both humble and destroy their haughty foes. What could be more humiliating and degrading to the monarch of Assyria, who had boldly set himself in defiance against the God of heaven, than the threat—" I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way which thou camest.' Thus does proud man degrade himself to be treated like a wild ungovernable beast, and thus is he humblingly compelled to crouch to the power of Jehovah, the God of the whole earth. Happy they who, from choice, yield themselves to his not only supreme, but wise and kind disposal, and are led by him as his willing servantshis beloved children. Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000, and they were all dead corpses. Thus was the enemy vanquished, without the lifting of a weapon, and the haughty king returned to his own land, and was shortly afterwards slain by his sons in the house of his God.

This narrative is also recorded 2 Kings xviii. xix. 2 Chron. xxix.-xxxii.

Ch. xxxviii. records Hezekiah's sickness and recovery, which probably took place before the events recorded in the preceding chapters, but which are transposed in the order of the story, for the sake of keeping up the connexion between the predictions and their fulfilment. Hezekiah being wonderfully restored from his threatening illness, recollected and recorded his thoughts and feelings under his trial. Persons in circumstances of affliction, or restored from them, may derive much instruction and comfort from Hezekiah's experience; and whatever our circumstances, as the

living, we ought to praise the God of our lives, and bless his name for ever and ever.

Ch. xxxix. records the imperfection of this good man. Alas! his heart was lifted up-humble gratitude gave way to self-exaltation and vanity. The King of Babylon sending him a congratulatory and complimentary message on his recovery, he hearkened to it too greedily, and displayed his treasures to the messengers, instead, it should seem, of exalting the God of his mercies :whereupon Isaiah foretold the Babylonish Captivity, and that Hezekiah's descendants would be servants in the palace of the King of Babylon. The friendship of the great and powerful of this world is oftener a snare than a real advantage, and leads to consequences little anticipated. Let us ever be watchful, and not highminded.

Hezekiah's submission, however, affords an example for our imitation. In every trial, and especially those we bring on ourselves by our own sin or imprudence, it becomes us to submit. We may be sure the Lord will rebuke and chasten those whom he loves; and if we can look upon our afflictions as the chastenings of a wise and kind Father, we may not only submit, but thankfully acquiesce, and say, "Good is the word of the Lord."

Part VI.-From ch. xl. to the end of the book comprises a series of prophecies, delivered, in all probability, towards the close of Hezekiah's reign. This portion is considered the most elegant part of the writings of the Old Testament, and is certainly the most evangelical. The chief subject is the restoration of the Church. Sometimes through temporal deliverances to Israel, the prophet looks to the Redeemer's work for his Church in general; and is often so carried away with that greater and more glorious object, as almost to lose sight of the more immediate object.

In Ch. xl. xli. God's prophets are directed to comfort his people in their captivity, and to impart to them the glad tidings that deliverance was at hand. Accordingly, a harbinger is figuratively introduced as appearing to remove every obstruction, and prepare the way of the Lord for the salvation of his people. The same words