"He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord."--_2 Kings
18:3._
YOU have heard of many bad kings. There is a good king to tell you
of at last--good King Hezekiah. He cared for nothing so much as to
please God. He would not have any idols, but he cleared them all away,
and had the holy Temple all set to rights, and made beautiful as God
had commanded; and he had all the services at the Temple at the right
times, and used to go and pray there himself constantly. And he did all
he could to make his people good too.
But there came a great danger. There was a king of Assyria named
Sennacherib, who had quantities of soldiers and horses and chariots,
and he used to conquer towns, and carry all the people in them away to
live far from home. He thought he would seize Hezekiah and his people
in this way, and he did come and do much harm all over the country.
He did not come at once to Jerusalem; but he sent three boasting men,
with an army, to stand outside the walls, and call out to the people
inside, that Sennacherib was coming to conquer them and carry them
away, and that they need not believe their king Hezekiah when he said
that God would help them, for no god had ever yet saved a country from
Sennacherib.
Hezekiah's people were terribly afraid. Some wanted him to get help
from the king of Egypt; but Hezekiah knew that God had forbidden him
to have anything to do with the Egyptians. He knew that God could help
him, and that the way to be helped was to do just what God told him.
So, though Sennacherib had so many men, and he had so few, and the
Egyptians had plenty of soldiers and horses, he made sure that God
could save him much better than any Egyptian of them all.
Next Sunday morning you will hear what happened.
[Illustration: RABSACES BEFORE SENNACHERIB.]