2 Chronicles 31:20-21 And thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah, and worked that which was good and right and truth before the LORD his God.… There are three lessons we may learn from Hezekiah. I. HE WAS NOT AFRAID OF WORK. He did not seek success without toil. "Depend upon it," said Sir Walter Scott, "there is nothing to be had without labour." Horace Greely said to the youth of America, "The darkest day in any man's earthly career is that wherein he first fancies that there is some easier way of gaining a dollar than by squarely earning it." "When I was a telegraph operator in Pittsburgh," said Andrew Carnegie, "I knew all the men who speculated. I have lived to see all of them ruined — bankrupt in money and bankrupt in character. There is scarcely an instance of a man who has made a fortune by speculation and kept it." II. HEZEKIAH CONCENTRATED HIS EFFORT. What he did, he did "with all his heart." "The one prudence in life is concentration," says Emerson, "the one evil is dissipation." There is a proverb which says, "A canoe is paddled on both sides," which means that to succeed you must do one thing at a time, and do it with all your heart and all your powers. III. HEZEKIAH AIMED AT THOROUGHNESS IN HIS WORK. (A. F. Forrest.) Parallel Verses KJV: And thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah, and wrought that which was good and right and truth before the LORD his God. |