The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-10-12
THE SALT LAKE HERALD MONDAY, OCTOBER 49, 1885,

| city was given UP to RIGHTEOUSNESS
| and impiety. Hezekiah who had at
! the very beginning of his reign sought
! to destroy the high places and restore
the worship of Jehovah according to
! the Mosaic custom--who had even
destroyed the BraZen Serpent, to pre-
vent the people worshipping it-had
not been able to restrain the evils of
1 the people. 1t was about this time
that Sennacherib, the great king of
Assyria, was invading the land. The
ma alton and people, weakened through
their dissipation were an easy prey
! to this mighty warrior, this Alexander
of ancient history. Hezekiah had
stripped the temple gates and walls of
| their adornment to pay him tribute if
| he would only spare Jerusalem. But
despite his promises to the contrary,
! he was soon at the gates of that large
city with mighty army and prepared
! a siege. Beyond the narrow walls of
! the city, neither the king, nor his sub
! jects were allowed to pass. On every
/ side they We're smut ii by the AS
syrians. It was heFe that the rather
peculiar words of the text, rthe land
OF far distances, have q significant
meaning. With supplies almost limited
and their vision so limited, the promise
OF the text would be precious one
| indeed to the inhabitants CT the be-
leagured city.
Rabshaka, the cup bearer to the
king of Assyria, standing in the
! buffers field, with blasphemous and
insulting summons demands the sur
render of the city, derides the kings
hopes of assistance from Egypt. and
SCOTS at his religious professions and
services.
Hezekiah's ministers are thrown
into anguish and dismay; the king
himself lays aside his royal robes and
dons sachcloth and ashes, and in his
extremity appeals to the prophet of
God. Isaiah. alone, is undaunted, and
hurls back threatening for threatening
he even suggests that the fires OF
Tophet are already burning in ex-
pectancy of the Assyrian corpseS that
are destined to feed their flames. Then
turning to Hezekiah and his distressed
people, he bids them take heart and
hope. He says that the king shall
not always be clothed in sackcloth,
but shall put on his beautiful and
royal garments again; the beseiging
hosts shall depart and they shall go
forth from the city unhindered-the
wide landscape shall spread itself be-
lore them in all its splendor. And so
it was.
The pious Jewish king taking the in
sulting letter of Seanacherib and
faith prayed to God. He received
promise of Immediate delivery as is
shown by ancient records which read:
THAT night the angel Of the Lord
went out and srnote in the camp of
the Assyrians, $4,000 men," After
this, Sennacherib fled in haste to
Ninevah where after some years he
was murdered by his own sons as he
lay drunk in the house of NiSroch.
This is an interesting story of the
olden time, and there is no doubt of
it's direct application to the king and
his subjects then.
But is it not also a story of the pres
ent? And does it not furnish a clew
to many of lifes riddles? Besieged
by the nlultitudinous army of evils,
the church of God is often in sore
straits and Knocked by many a blat
ant and oratorical I2ahshaka. Even
her leaders sometimes become dis
heartened and sit in sackcloth, and
there is need Of an Isaiah to ring ip
the ears of Gods people, his exceeding
great and precious promis'es. Not only
the church, but the individual Chris
tian is often besieged and in need of
the promise.
We shall not misapply the text, if
we make it to stand for the promise
that we shall see the king of kings in
his beauty, the beauty of holiness, and
that beauty shall be upon us, and the
heavenly Canaan; the land that is
far off, shall not only be seen, but
it shall be ours to inherit, and the
prospect Of it shall be the comfort of
the Christian in his times of distress
When the sorest of all trials come
when death takes our best loved ones
remember that you are mortal be-
ingS, and heirs to amending time.
We think too often of the life of
man as bounded by the two events of
life and death. If that were all, ii
were a miserable existence, and for the
multitude, the sooner ended, the bet
ter. But that is not all. 1t is only
the beginning. We are here making
character that shall last through all
eternity. We need the stress and
strain Of trial to make US strong char
acters. The tree shaken by the storm
strikes its roots deeper into the soil,
and takes new and better hold.
We are children at school, and like
other and smaller ones we like the
play hour best. But that hour must
be shortened that they may learn. So
with US. THE trial of our faith shall
be bound unto praise and honor and
glory at the appearance of Jesus
Christ" In the hope of the eternal,
man can we'll abide the temporal.
How often we seem shut in by the
circumstances. How often the mother
capable of doing much in society or
the church is shut in with the care of
her children and seems to be doing
nothing of that for which she had
special taste and fitness. The
destiny and life work of her children
is the hope before her. She sees the
promise in the far distance and is en-
coura ged and content. Often the
pastor, pursuing the treadmill routine
of duty, seeing small returns, cheers
his heart with the promise, "One SOW
eth and another reapeth. Both he
that soweth and he that reapeth may
rejoice together
So of earthly life itself We inter
pref it all in the light of the wide
horizon of eternity.
A pilgrim once $50 runs an ancient tale)
Old, worn and spent, crept down
Swallowed vale.
Chill was the dusky air, and dark the |
The path was rugged and his feet were
His faded cheek was scanned by pain and
His heavy eyes upon the ground were
cast
And every step seemed feebler than the
last.
The valley ended where naked rock
Rose sheer from earth to heaven, as if to
mock
The pilgrim who had crept that toilsome
way;
But while his dim and weary eyes essay
To find an outlet in the mountain side,
A ponderous, sculptured brazen door he /
spied,
And tottering toward it with fast failing
breath,
Above the portal read, "the Gate of
Death"
He could not stay his feet that led
thereto:
1t yielded to his touch, and passing