October 7

through the valley of the shadow of death—And then we are to go and behold him in the midst of the throne, where he attracts every eye, fills every heart, and employs every tongue.

OCTOBER 7.—“And prayed unto him.”—2 Chronicles 33:13.

FEW individuals ever surpassed Manasseh in depravity and wickedness. Yet he, even he, obtained mercy. And we here see the means employed for his conversion. Divine Providence so ordered things, that the enemy invaded Judah, and succeeded: “Wherefore the Lord brought upon them 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.” There thus despoiled, degraded, and distressed; there the seeds of truth early sown in his mind began to revive; there the prayers of a pious father began to be answered—“and prayed unto him.”

Affliction alone never converted one soul. We have known fools who have been brayed in a mortar, yet has not their folly gone from them. Ice may be broken and not dissolved: rock may be broken and the factions retain the same hardness as before. Yet there is a natural suitableness in affliction to produce the effect. It shows what an evil and bitter thing sin is, as the procuring cause of all our sufferings. It cuts the man off from present temptation; and affords him time and leisure for reflection; and the want of thought is the greatest obstacle to religion: hence the Scripture says, “Consider your ways:” and hence David acknowledges, “I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.” It shows the vanity of the world, and affords opportunity to introduce the proposal of a better portion; and to urge the resolution, “Therefore will I look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation.” It befriends confession and prayer; therefore says God, “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face; in their affliction they will seek me early.” The bemoaning and repenting Ephraim had been chastised. The famine made the Prodigal think of heaven, and resolve to throw himself upon his Father’s mercy.

Here is therefore a very instructive fact. It teaches us that prosperity is no proof of Divine favour; and that adversity is not incompatible with the love of God, but may even flow from it. We congratulate our friends on their successes and risings in the world; but frequently if we could see all we should rather bewail them; for we should see their table becoming a snare, and their prosperity destroying them. On the other hand, we go and mourn with them over their losses and trials, when, if we could look forward, we should rather rejoice and be thankful; for we should see the valley of Achor given them for a door of hope; the ploughshare breaking up the fallow ground to prepare it for the seed of the kingdom; the way hedged up with thorns to keep the traveller from going astray. How should we have pitied Manasseh, had we seen him reduced from all his greatness, and thus indignantly and cruelly treated. But he soon acknowledged, with his pious ancestor, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted;” and he is now blessing God, not for his crown,