which we are about to present, an important integral part of it.

Thus far all h ad been as might have been looked for in the course of this history. But what

followed suggests questions of the deepest importance. Isaiah had not only promised Divine

healing, but that within the briefest period* Hezekiah should once more go up to the Temple - no

doubt to return thanks.

* Whether or not, the expression: "on the third day" be taken literally, manifestly it was intended

to convey, not only the briefest period, but one within which such a result could not have been

reached had the healing been in the ordinary course.

Yet he conjoined with this miraculous help the application of a common remedy, when he directed

that a lump of figs should be laid on the boil. And as if still further to point the contrast, Hezekiah

asked for "a sign" of the promise, and the prophet not only gave it, but allowed him a choice in

that which from any point of view implied direct Divine interposition. For evidently Hezekiah

asked for such "a sign" as would be a pledge to him of God's direct intervention on his behalf,

while, on the other hand, the alternative proposed to him, that the shadow on the steps of the sun-

clock of Ahaz,* might either move forwards or backwards, forbids any natural explanation of it,

such as that of a solar eclipse which Isaiah had either naturally or supernaturally foreknown.**

Hezekiah chose what to him seemed the more difficult, or rather the more inconceivable

alternative - that of the shadow receding ten steps. And in answer to Isaiah's prayer, the "sign"

desired was actually given.

* It is interesting to learn that Ahaz had - probably on his visit to Damascus (2 Kings 16:10) - seen

and brought to Jerusalem some of the scientific appliances of the great empire of the East. It is

impossible to determine whether this mode of measurin g the progress of time (not strictly hours)

was by a sun-dial, the invention of which Herodotus ascribes to the Babylonians (2. 109).

According to Ideler (Handb. d. Chronol. 1. p. 485) it was a gnomon, or index, surrounded by

concentric circles, by which t he time of the day was marked by the lengthening shadow. But the

term "steps" seems rather to indicate an obelisk surrounded by steps, the shadow on which marked

the hours, so that the shadow falling in the morning westwards first on the lowest step, gradually

ascended to the plane on the top, and after midday again descended the steps eastwards. As the

text seems to imply that there were twenty such "steps," they must have marked the quarters of an

hour, and in that case the event have happened about half-past two o'clock p.m. (comp.

Kamphausen in Riehm's Worterb).

** The suggestion of a solar eclipse (made by Mr. Bosanquet in the Journal of the As. Soc. Vol.

15.), which seems adopted by Canon Rawlinson (Speaker's Comment.), who ascribes to Isaiah a

"supernatural fore -knowledge" of the event, is untenable, even on the ground that it would imply a

supernatural influence on Hezekiah in his choice of the retrogression of the shadow.

It is not difficult to perceive the symbolical significance of this sign. As Isaiah had been

commissioned to offer to Ahaz "a sign" of the promised deliverance, and to leave him the choice

of it, "either in the depth or in the height above" (Isaiah 7:11), so here a similar alternative was

presented to Hezekiah. As Ahaz in his trust in natural means and his distrust of Jehovah had

refused, so Hezekiah in his distrust of natural means and trust of Jehovah asked for a sign. And

lastly, even as Hezekiah had feared that his life -day would have ended in its mid -day hour, so

now, when it was to be lengthened, did the falling shadow climb up again the ten steps to its mid -

day mark.

But there are also deeper lessons to be learnt from this history. The change in the announcement of

what was to befall Hezekiah, in answer to his prayer, is of eternal meaning. It encourages us

"always to pray" - not excluding from the range of our petitions what are commonly called "things

temporal." And yet the very idea of prayer also excludes any thought of the absolute certainty of