ven should our full hearts break;
The broken heart Thou wilt not, Lord, despise;
Ah! Thou art still too gracious to forsake,
Though Thy strong hand so heavily chastise.
Hear all our prayers, hear not our murmurs, Lord;
And, though our lips rebel, still make Thyself adored.
--_Henry Hart Milman_.

{317}

MANASSEH.

(Manasseh began his reign by doing every evil thing he could possibly
think of; he sacrificed to all the heathen idols and made his own
children "pass through the fire." In the book of Chronicles it is said
that he was taken captive and carried away to Babylon. Here he
repented of his many sins, and became a good and holy man.)

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned
fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in
the sight of the Lord, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the
Lord cast out before the children of Israel. For he built again the
high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he reared
up altars for the idols of Baal, and made Asheroth, and worshiped all
the host of heaven, and served them. And he built altars in the house
of the Lord, whereof the Lord said, "In Jerusalem shall my name be for
ever." And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two
courts of the house of the Lord. He also made his children to pass
through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: and he practiced
augury, and used enchantments, and practiced sorcery, and dealt with
them that had familiar spirits, and with wizards: he wrought much evil
in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.

And he set the graven image of the idol, which he had made, in the
house of God, of which God said to David {318} and to Solomon his son,
"In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the
tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever: neither will I any more
remove the foot of Israel from off the land which I have appointed for
your fathers; if only they will observe to do all that I have
commanded them, even all the law and the statutes and the ordinances
by the hand of Moses."

But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do that which is
evil more than did the nations, whom the Lord destroyed before the
children of Israel. And the Lord spoke by his servants the prophets,
saying, "Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations,
and hath