I. PREPARATORY STEPS. In order to secure such an awakening of religious life as took place in Judah under Hezekiah, three things are indispensable.

1. Confession of sin. "Our fathers have trespassed," etc. (ver. 6). As all religion begins with saying, "Father, I have sinned" (Luke 15:18), so the first symptoms of reviving life in souls that have been apathetic is acknowledgment of their trespass (Psalm 51:3).

2. Cleansing of the sanctuary. "We have cleansed all the house of the Lord" (ver. 18). As the visible Church is a temple of the Lord (Psalm 132:14; Matthew 18:20; Ephesians 2:21, 22; 1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 3:6), this may symbolize the removing from its doctrine, worship, and practice of everything that is contrary to the mind and will of God as revealed in the Scriptures; and again, as the individual heart is a habitation of the living God (1 Corinthians 6:19), it may suggest the duty,, of purging. . . it from every known sin' (2 Corinthians 7:1).

3. Renewal of the covenant. Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel" (ver. 10); and the same must be done by all, whether communities or individuals, who would experience a quickening in their religious life. Unnecessary now, as in the days of Hezekiah, to offer slain victims and make propitiation for sin, that having been done once for all by Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:11-14), it is still indispensable to appropriate the reconciliation and make the self-surrender to which Hezekiah's offerings pointed.

II. CERTAIN RESULTS. A revived condition of the religious life of either Church or individual will discover itself in three things, as it did with Hezekiah and his people.

1. Self-consecration. Already expressed in the act of covenant-making, this will reveal itself in the life that proceeds therefrom. Christian individuals in the Church, recognizing themselves to be not their own, but bought with a price, will lay themselves upon the altar as a willing sacrifice (Romans 12:1).

2. Gladness. "And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang," etc. (ver. 28). Joy an invariable accompaniment of a revived condition of religion in the soul or in the Church (Psalm 149:2, 5; Isaiah 65:14, 18; Habakkuk 3:18; Ephesians 5:18; 1 John 1:4).

3. Liberality. "And the congregation brought in sacrifices," etc. (ver. 31). Generosity in giving almost necessarily follows on a heightened experience of Divine grace. "Freely ye have received, freely give." - W.

1. In the realm of nature.

(1)Storms.

(2)Earthquakes.

(3)The transition of the seasons.

2. In the realm of providence.

(1)Israel's deliverance at the Red Sea.

(2)The elevation of Saul to the throne of Israel.

(3)Nebuchadnezzar's humiliation.

3. In the realm of grace.

(1)The conversion of Manasseh, of Saul the persecutor.

(2)Revivals in churches.

II. The fact that ALTHOUGH GOD'S WORKS MAY APPEAR TO BE MARVELLOUSLY SUDDEN, YET AT THE SAME TIME, THEY HAVE BEEN PRECEDED BY A PREPARATION THAT HAS PERHAPS LASTED FOR YEARS. It was so in this particular case. Hezekiah thanked God for having prepared the people. Do you ask me how they were prepared? I think I could venture to answer that question by saying they were prepared by the very openness of the sin of the previous monarch. Ahaz had gone to such a tremendous length in iniquity that his very excesses of crime had awoke a counter-feeling amongst the people. So is it in everything. First in the realm of nature. The storm that comes with racehorse speed across the sky might doubtless be traced back to atmospheric agencies far, far remote. The storm is only a climax. As in the realm of nature, so in the realm of providence. The deliverance at the Red Sea — it appeared sudden — it was not. It was only one link in a long chain. From the very beginning God had determined how He would deliver His people. Is not it specially so in the realm of grace? Look at Manasseh, whom we have used as an example of sudden conversion. It at your leisure you refer to his history, you will find in the thirty-third chapter, eleventh and twelfth verses, the account of God's preparation. "And Manasseh was caught in the thorns, and was taken a captive to Babylon; and in his distress he sought the Lord." Take the case of Pentecost. If you read the second chapter of the Acts attentively, you will see that God had brought together at Jerusalem at one time an immense number of people out of every country, and I read they were "devout men"; that is, they were inquirers after the truth. God had heaped together prepared fuel, then He made Peter strike the spark which resulted in the grand Pentecostal blaze. So is it in revivals. A revival appears sudden, and yet it is only the result of previous preparation. You are revived and you say that you are revived suddenly. Let me ask you a question or two, and I think you will see there has been prior working. Did you have any troubles in your business? Did you lose a child? Were you sick? What an encouraging thought it is to every worker for God that mighty things can thus be accomplished in a moment.

(A. G. Brown.)