First of all, Manasseh did those sins which are most hateful to God. "He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, like unto the abominations of the heathen, he built again the high places which his father had broken down,-reared up altars for Baal, made groves, and worshipped the host of heaven, and served them.” He actually put altars in the house of God. He caused his children to pass through the fire. He observed times, used enchantments, used witch-crafts, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and wizards. "So Manasseh made Judah to err, and to do worse than the heathen." (2 Chron. xxxiii.)

He closed his ears against the warning voice of God. "The Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken."

66

He was a murderer, and as some think of the prophet of his day, Isaiah, who was sawn asunder." At any rate, it is said of him, "he shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another."

Add to all this, his sins were all the blacker, because he knew better. He had his father's example to look back upon, father's good deeds around him, and there

his

66

fore his condemnation was still greater. Here was a depth of wickedness scarcely to be equalled in the history of sinners. The grace of God that bringeth salvation" to such sinners, shines out all the more vividly and wondrously against this dark background of abominable iniquity. Surely here is a pattern of long-suffering we may well be amazed at. A wonderful proof too, of the power of grace to change the heart, to which sin has by habit become a second nature, and which therefore, in the language

of

men, is so much less likely to be changed.

Strong measures were employed by God to produce great results, The outward instrument used by God, was a great affliction. The inward we know was the subduing and leading of the Holy Spirit,without this even his affliction would never have humbled Manasseh.

But so we read, "The Lord brought upon him the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him and he was intreated of him, and heard his

supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom."

We are not, you see, here told, what the secondary causes of this deliverance were, that is, how, and why the king of Assyria let him go back, or any of the circumstances attending his liberation. In a short history of a reign of more than fifty years, the chief and most important points are dwelt on. And this is the one of all the most important, that God caused this deliverance to take place in answer to Manasseh's prayer; and in order to show mercy and favor to a returning, penitent sinner.

God knew that the change was real, and so God heard and answered his prayer. The change was real, for as we have seen, it was not a change wrought only by the affliction. This will not always bring men to themselves. Some persons are only the more hardened in their sins, when "the hand of God presseth them sore." Thus it is recorded of Ahaz, the grand-father of Manasseh, "In the time of his distress did he trespass, yet more against the Lord." But with the grandson it was different, for “he humbled himself greatly before the Lord."

It is true that affliction for the most part has a humbling effect, but it does not al

ways produce a godly sorrow, or hatred to the sins it has found a man engaged in. It may soften the heart and make it more open to impression. But it does not always humble it to receive impression from God, and to submit to the walk of godliness. After all, affliction does not change the tastes, or alter the turn of affections. Nothing but divine power does this. Nothing less than the Spirit producing a new heart.

But observe next, three principal proofs of the soundness of Manasseh's conversion. One was great abasement of soul, "he humbled himself greatly." There was a cause indeed, if he only looked back on the vast amount of evil he had done. How many had he driven from God! How many encouraged in sin! How much of his father's good in the kingdom he had undone and destroyed! These, and like thoughts, might well humble him.

And has not every sinner some grounds for self-abasement! Yes! truly in all cases there will be humility where there is grace, -"Behold I am vile," will be the unfeigned language of the heart. "I abhor myself and repent," will be the genuine feeling. There is always a cause, even where the life has been raised far above the base

wickedness of Manasseh,-even where the character will bear the description of Job's, "an upright man, one that feared God and eschewed evil." The tendency to sinful departure from God, besides the actual sins in heart, thought, word and deed, against a sin-hating but long-suffering Father, this is enough to humble, and will do so where the work of grace is really taking place, and the conversion is real. No real conversion without self-abasement.

Another mark in Manasseh of real alteration and lasting change, was his prayer. No short, or passing cry for mercy was his, or it would not thus be mentioned. Not only it is said, "he prayed and God was entreated," but "his prayer" among other things, "was written among the sayings of the seer." (v. 19.)

Many a man in trouble cries out for mercy, who when the trouble is gone is silent, and proves his repentance hollow. "Behold, he prayeth," will ever be as it has ever been, a true mark of a penitent child returned to a forgiving Father. And that not as a passing effort from a troubled mind, not an anxious cry, lasting only while the trouble lasts, but a settled habit, a constant practice, -the result of a new relation to God; the