Every event or fact recorded in Scripture is significant. There is some purpose in its being recorded. This is true not only of events or of facts that are directly stated, but also of those with which we become acquainted by comparing two or more passages. Our knowledge of those which belong to this latter class, of course depends on our diligence in the close study of the Word which such comparison of passages necessitates. But "the diligent soul shall be made fat." All effort of this kind, if really in humble faith, will result in abundant reward.

As an illustration I call attention to the fact of Hezekiah's association with his father Ahaz for about
two years. It is nowhere directly stated that it was so. But we know it was so by comparing the passages which describe the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and Hoshea king of Israel. Hoshea began to reign in the twelfth year of Ahaz (2 Kings 17:i), Hezekiah began to reign in the third year of Hoshea (2 Kings 18:i), and Ahaz reigned sixteen years (2 Kings 16:2). 2 Kings 18:9, 10 shows that the fourth and sixth years of Hezekiah respectively correspond with the seventh and ninth of Hoshea. At first sight it might be thought that these verses are in conflict with the first verse of the chapter which apparently makes the first year of Hezekiah correspond with Hoshea's third instead of with his fourth, as consistency with vers. 9, 10 requires. But it may be that in the troubled times which followed the death of Jeroboam II., the beginning of the year for the Israelitish kings was somewhat later than it was for the kings of Judah, even if it was not so from the revolt of the ten tribes under Jeroboam I. This supposition entirely meets the difficulty and avoids resorting to the conjecture of a scribal or copyist's error in ver. i as formerly I have done. If, then, Hoshea's third year began somewhat later than Ahaz's twelfth, it is easy to see how Hezekiah's first may have begun in Hoshea's third and yet for the most part have corresponded with his fourth. But Hoshea's first corresponds with Ahaz's twelfth, only beginning later; therefore Hoshea's fourth, corresponding with Hezekiah's first, corresponded also with Ahaz's fifteenth, and since Ahaz reigned sixteen years Hezekiah must have been associated with him for two years, or at least for parts of two years.

If now by the comparison of the passages we have deduced the fact, it is necessary to inquire what it signifies. For what purpose is it thus put on record? Has it any meaning? Is there any lesson to be learned from it ? That the fact is significant we need not doubt. Everything in Scripture has significance. That the Spirit of God had some purpose in putting it on record we must accept. That there is design in the form of the record is also evident, and the study needful in order to discover the fact and which is necessitated by the form of the record only the more emphasizes its importance. The trouble to which we are put in order to find out what the fact is fixes our attention upon it, arouses our interest in it and provokes in us the inquiry, What is its meaning ? The assertion that every scripture "is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," impels us to ask, What doctrine, reproof, correction or instruction in righteousness has this fact to give us ? If the things that of old happened to Israel were for " ensamples," in what is this, then, an ensample ? If they were written for our learning, what, then, are we to learn from these two years' association of Hezekiah with Ahaz ?

A glance at the personal charter of Ahaz and the distinguishing features of his reign will start us on the road to what we are seeking for. Unbelief seems to have been the predominating element in Ahaz's character. He had no faith in God and put no reliance on His word. This principle of unbelief was accompanied with hypocritical pretension and mock humility. (See Is. 7:10-12). Being a man of such a character we need not wonder at the sad features of his reign. He did not take David for his pattern, but the kings of Israel. Prom the beginning of his reign, and as his own deliberate choice, he turned away from the path of faith to follow the wicked kings of Israel and to imitate their example in sin and disobedience. What an unhappy choice!

But one misstep leads to another, and so we are told next that he also imitated the heathen, making his son "to pass through the fire" and sacrificing and burning incense "in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree."

In subjection to the chastening hand of God is another element in the character of Ahaz. On account of his sins God delivered him into the hands of the kings of Syria and Israel, and also to the Edomites and Philistines, who inflicted upon him a terrible humiliation. They reduced him to very great distress, but instead of bowing to God in self-judgment and repentance he appeals to the king of Assyria for help. Isa. 7:shows, too, that he does this in the face of gracious encouragement and warning from God. It is therefore in headstrong self-will that he turns to the king of Assyria for aid. He will not submit to God, but he must have at all cost the help of man. He gave to the king of Assyria, to secure his help, not only the gold and silver in the treasuries of the king's house, but also that of the house of the Lord, appropriating thus what had been dedicated to God to his own personal ends.

Having thus voluntarily placed himself in the position of dependence upon the king of Assyria, he trespassed yet more against the Lord. He sacrificed to the gods of Syria, he put a stop to the worship of the Lord, closing the doors of His house, and established instead idolatry, making altars in every corner of Jerusalem and high places to burn incense to other gods in every city of Judah. He gathered together the vessels of the house of God, cutting them in pieces, and sent them to the king of Assyria, taking what belonged to God for his own uses.

What a dark picture! How plainly the reign of Ahaz sets forth the pre-dominance of those principles of unbelief by which the people of God are turned from walking in the steps of Christ-the one blessed path of faith, to perverting and corrupting the faith, and finally to the complete denial of it. It is a very solemn warning and example.

But we must turn now to the beginning of the reign of Hezekiah. While Ahaz is yet reigning Hezekiah is in some way, and for some reason that we are not told, put upon the throne. But whatever the reason and in whatever way, this is the simple fact. We cannot be far astray in supposing that there must have been great exercise on the part of those who sought to be faithful to the Lord in those exceedingly dark and difficult times. They may have urgently demanded the exaltation of Hezekiah to the throne. Discerning in the heir-apparent one who gave promise of the energy of faith, his association on the throne would satisfy them and rally them to a brave effort to reverse the obnoxious policy of Ahaz. But we need not speculate on what may have been. The one thing with which we are concerned is the fact that simultaneously with Hezekiah's coming to the throne a new movement began which gathered the faithful and true, and which under the wise counsel of Hezekiah, and by his authority, irresistibly established itself, and this, too, while Ahaz
was still living. The predominating forces were powerless to prevent it. The doors of the house of the Lord were opened, the priests and Levites sanctified themselves and cleansed the house of the Lord, and the worship of the Lord, in the form which He Himself had required, was again established. It was a return to faith, to the truth, to obedience to God and to dependence upon His word.

What a picture this movement under Hezekiah is of the recovery of the people of God to the faith once for all given them, and of the reestablishment of that faith at a time when they have been in departure from it and are giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils!

Now the point which I wish to emphasize above all others is that this movement was initiated and established before the death of Ahaz. Hezekiah, after coming to the throne, did not wait for Ahaz to die before he undertook to reverse the policy of his father. In his first year, and at the very beginning of the year too, he began the work which so distinguished his reign. This year we have seen corresponded with Ahaz's fifteenth year. He was then associated with Ahaz for two years. Is this fact significant ? Has it a lesson to teach us ? Let us see. Principles of unbelief are predominant now- principles which destroy our precious faith. How generally prevalent, too, they are. The word of God is ignored and set aside, the truth as He gave it is trampled on, pure human inventions are substituted in place of what has been ordered of God, and divine things prostituted to purely human ends. It is a time of departure from the faith and the truth which is from God. Such is the state of things which exists to-day. Figuratively speaking, Ahaz is reigning now. The principles for which he stands, and of which his reign is the expression, still prevail.

But must faith wait till they cease to act or exhaust themselves before it claims its God-given portion? No, thank God! Faith has a right to the word of God, to the truth as God has revealed it. Though unbelief in certain popular phases usurps it and uses it to further its own interests, Ahaz-like, still it is faith's prerogative to claim it. This is what we see in Hezekiah. He claimed and used his liberty to obey the word of God, to do what was right in the sight of the Lord, to pattern after David. He had the energy of faith to do it.

We do not read of any resistance to this movement on the part of Ahaz. But whether he assisted or not is no concern to us. Our picture is that of faith in irresistible strength on the one hand and of the powerlessness of unbelief on the other to hinder.

If there is energy of faith to claim and obey the word of God, unbelief is helpless. It cannot stand before one who submits in simplicity to the Scriptures. It is weak to hinder simple dependence upon God. Unbelieving principles, however prevailing, have no power to prevent faith's enjoyment of the things of God or hinder its efforts to recover and possess itself of the inheritance which belongs to it in the word of God.

Let us, then, be like Hezekiah. Let us follow his example. Let us waste no time in brooding over the ruin unbelief has wrought all around us, and in wishing the prevailing conditions about us to change, but in the face of them and in spite of them, let us put our trust in God, go forth to obey Him and live
in simple-hearted dependence upon His Word, that Word being our only warrant for the path of faith. In such a course we shall receive not simply greater, but higher blessing than that given to Hezekiah. C. C.