The shadow returned, and Hezekiah got his sign. But when he was well, he used it for more than a sign. He read a great spiritual lesson in it. The time, which upon the dial had been apparently thrown back, had in his life been really thrown back; and God had given him his years to live over again. The past was to be as if it had never been, its guilt and weakness wiped out. _Thou hast cast behind Thy back all my sins._ As a newborn child Hezekiah felt himself uncommitted by the past, not a sin's-doubt nor a sin's-cowardice in him, with the heart of a little child, but yet with the strength and dignity of a grown man, for it is the magic of tribulation to bring innocence with experience. _I shall go softly_, or literally, _with dignity or caution, as in a procession, all my years because of the bitterness of my soul. O Lord, upon such things do men live; and altogether in them is the life of my spirit.... Behold, for perfection was it bitter to me,_ so _bitter_. And through it all there breaks a new impression of God. _What shall I say? He hath both spoken with me, and Himself hath done it._ As if afraid to impute his profits to the mere experience itself, _In them is the life of my spirit_, he breaks in with _Yea, Thou hast recovered me; yea, Thou hast made me to live_. And then, by a very pregnant construction, he adds, _Thou hast loved my soul out of the pit of destruction; that is, of course, loved, and by Thy love lifted_, but he uses the one word loved, and gives it the active force of _drawing_ or _lifting_. In this lay the head and glory of Hezekiah's experience. He was a religious man, an enthusiast for the Temple services, and had all his days as his friend the prophet whose heart was with the heart of God; but it was not through any of these means God came near him, not till he lay sick and had turned his face to the wall. Then indeed he cried, _What shall I say? He hath both spoken with me, and Himself hath done it!_ Forgiveness, a new peace, a new dignity and a visit from the living God! Well might Hezekiah exclaim that it was only through a near sense of death that men rightly learned to live. _Ah, Lord, it is upon these things that men live; and wholly therein is the life of my spirit._ It is by these things men live, and therein I have learned for the first time what life is!