th the talons of a vulture, with
cruelty that spared neither tender woman nor innocent child, and
Jerusalem was burned with fire, and Manasseh carried off in chains and
flung into a foreign prison to muse in solitude over the end of his
projects, and to find out there that the old ways had been the best.

There we are told that he repented, that he was stricken with shame
because of all the evil that he had done, and turned with prayer and
humility to the God whom he had defied. And we are told that God was
merciful and heard his entreaties, and accepted his repentance, and
brought him back after sorrowful years of imprisonment to his land and
throne. This is the part of the story which most people emphasise.
That, they say, is the main lesson of the story--Manasseh's repentance,
and how God accepted the rebellious sinner at the last and forgave him
all his iniquities--and they draw from that the conclusion that it is
never too late to turn to God, and that all the dark doings of a man's
life are swept clean away, if at any time the heart repents and
believes.

But this is not the part of the story which the sacred writers dwell
upon. In the Book of Kings, where there is another version of
Manasseh's doings, no mention is made whatever of the repentance, and
here it is only briefly recorded, and in a somewhat sorrowful tone.

He came back humbled and forgiven, indeed, but not in a happy state of
mind. He came back to a ruined kingdom; to a sinful and demoralised
and destitute people; to see everywhere the sorrow, and the evil and
the misery and shame which his doings had caused; to be reminded
continually that his life had been a great wicked and foolish blunder,
and that there was no undoing the mischief which he had done. For the
sake of his repentance he was spared a little longer, but there could
be little joy in the remaining years of a life like that.

I think that that is the experience of most men who turn away in their
youth from the example and precepts of godly fathers, who reject the
truths which make life sober and strong, who betake themselves to
thoughts of infidelity and ways of sin, and fancy that they can live
life happily without God and prayer. There comes a time when they are
made to feel that their life has been a mistake, that it would have
been far better for them to have stuck to the old ways, that those
believing fathers whom they laughed at were right after all; perhaps
they repent a