1. _Sickness and death are the common lot of mankind._ Kings are
liable to them as well as beggars (H. E. I. 1536, 1537). 2. _In the
extremity of suffering, when all human help is vain, the righteous
can turn to God._ Pitiable would have been Hezekiah's case, monarch
though he was, if he could only have "turned his face to the wall."
3. _In every extremity, the most powerful of all remedies is prayer_
(H. E. I. 3720-3724). 4. _How promptly God sometimes answers prayer_
(2 Kings xx. 4). 5. _God answers prayer instrumentally._ In this case
He did it by suggesting a simple remedy (ver. 21), which perhaps the
court physicians had thought it beneath their dignity to employ.
6. _Those who have been restored from dangerous illness should make
public acknowledgement of God's goodness._ 7. _How great are our
privileges in possessing the Gospel,_ through which "life and
immortality are brought to light," and death stripped of its terror!
In the market-place of Mayence stands a statue of Gutenberg, the
inventor of printing, on the base of which there is this honourable
inscription:--"The knowledge which was once the exclusive possession
of princes and philosophers he has put within the reach of the common
people." A similar statue might be erected to the honour of our
Saviour, who has made those views of the future life which cheered
only a few of the noblest saints (such as David in Ps. xxiii. 6) the
common heritage of the whole Church. No true believer can now be so
much afraid of death as Hezekiah was (1 Cor. xv. 55-57).