king of Assyria;—therefore, thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria,—he shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and eighty and five thousand. And when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went and returned."[1] Is there not here a striking exhibition of the Divine Power, in protecting the innocent against their destroyers?
It is in incidents, like these, of apparent violence, though real mercy, that power is most strikingly manifested; for that exhibition of power most forcibly affects the mind, which appears in some violent outward act, by which great and immediate effect is visibly produced. It is for this reason that we have adduced the above instances. Yet, in reality, there is no greater exercise of Divine power here, than in making the sun daily to shine, and in causing the fruits to grow annually out of the earth, and in breathing into man's nostrils the breath of life, and each moment sustaining the life so given. And it is in such exercises of Divine power,—acts of perfect love and blessing, without even the appearance of violence or harshness—that the Divine Goodness truly delights. As He Himself says, "Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, saith the Lord God; and not that he should return from his
- ↑ Issiah xxxvii.
