tions in arrow-headed characters, which have been in part deciphered. Thus old Nineveh has awakened to bear witness to the truth of the Bible, and a large portion of the stone libraries of the old Assyrian monarchs have found room in the museums of Europe.

There are four mounds with ruins in the vicinity of Mosul, a commercial city of no small importance, by the Tigris. The tract of country surrounded and covered by these mounds is about eighteen miles long and twelve miles wide and nearly sixty in circumference, thus confirming the ancient accounts of the vast extent of this city. The palaces of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon have been found. In the first named, twenty-seven portals have been uncovered. They are guarded by huge winged bulls and lions with human heads. They have also found seventy-one halls, rooms, and galleries with walls which are from three to six feet through and covered with marble slabs full of pictures representing the military expeditions of the kings. There is also found a whole library of stone with arrow-headed characters. Near the city of Korsabad are found remains from 706 B. C. of a palace about nine hundred feet long and wide, with more than two hundred rooms and halls, thirty-one courts, and two hundred and twenty-five gates and doors. 27

The Glory and Decline of Babylon.

Babylon has now shared the fate of her younger sister, but she existed and maintained her glory many years after Nineveh had fallen. Nimrod called the city Bab-El, which means "the gate of God." Babylon was the capital in the land of Shinar, or, as it was afterward called, Chaldea. It was built about 2200 B. C., and about 1700 B. C. it became the seat of the government. The huge walls, brazen gates, and hanging gardens of Babylon belong to

27 Bible Dictionaries by Dr. Nyström and American Tract Society.

the wonders of the world.

Under Nebuchadnezzar, Baby

lon reached the summit of her greatness and splendor. Babylon was taken by the Persians B. C. 538, and from that time its importance declined. This great Babylon," 28the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency," "30 abundant in treasures,'

lady of kingdoms,"

66

"31

29 "the

66
'the

praise of the whole earth," the ancient London, but also

"tender and delicate" and "given to pleasures, » 33 should become "heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant." 34

The queen Semiramis, who endeavored to hide her bad character and make herself renowned by erecting great buildings, employed two million men to build Babylon. The city was built in a vast and fertile plain watered by the Euphrates. The soil was so fertile that it produced from two to three hundred fold. It was built in a square with walls sixty miles in circumference, three hundred feet high, and seventy-five feet wide, making room on the top of it for six chariots side by side. In each of the four sides were twenty-five brazen gates through which streets crossed to the opposite gates. On the squares thus formed countless houses and gardens were made. Two very costly bridges were built across the Euphrates, and artificial lakes and channels were constructed for the purpose of watering the country.

The royal palaces beautified the city. One of these, the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, was in an inclosure six miles in circumference. Bel's temple was a grand and splendid structure. Among other treasures it contained an image of gold forty feet high, worth one hundred million dollars. Xerxes, the Persian king, took all the treasures

28 Dan. 4: 30.

30 Isa. 47 5.

32 Verse 41.

34 Jer. 51: 37.

29 Isa. 13: 19.

31 Jer. 51: 13.
33 Isa. 47: I, 8.

and destroyed the temple utterly. Alexander the Great decided to rebuild it, and employed ten thousand men to clear away the ruins. When they had worked two months, Alexander died, and this put an end to the whole undertaking.

In consequence of the opulence and luxury of the inhabitants, corruptness and licentiousness of manners and morals were carried to a frightful extreme. Their idol worship was mingled with rites in which impurity was made a matter of religion, and we might well expect that Jehovah would bring down vengeance on her crimes. 35

Now let us read what the Lord by his prophets predicted concerning this proud and mighty city:

"And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their folds there. But wild beasts of the deserts shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. 36 The Lord hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his temple." 37 "And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant." 38

"39

Please notice how literally all this has been fulfilled. "The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds their might hath failed; they became as women. Behold how Belshazzar, the king, was troubled that night when Babylon fell into the hands of the Persians. His countenance was changed, his knees smote one against another, and a few hours later he was slain in his own palace.