Alam and the earthly Par se me more in the past. The deine o"Nh is a tale of Abraham and the Patriarchsa, cat'e a sad ve g has been in lis grave for more than a conicies Chaldes is but a memery. which we have knowledge, las 1:8 a filled the proph tie word assign dons are also long past. 1 Tec quering thro' e which placed 13's progress and gian to Israel the beads Are of kings of d. goo ༔』《་་ spirit have brought decline, and Jude's emotives in distant Strike the harp to I laintive tones, se rowing for the ec the'ration's glory. And not less heavy is the heart of Lackiel, the proph : IT T is just at the dawn of the sixth century before the Christian era, when we take our stand in the city of Jerusalem not far from the temple. Adam and the earthly Paradise are already three millenniums and more in the past. The deluge of Noah is a tale of hoary antiquity. Abraham and the Patriarchs are a thousand years dead. Moses has been in his grave for more than eight centuries. Ur of the Chaldees is but a memory. Egypt, the first great world power of which we have knowledge, has risen, culminated, and declined. Assyria too has had her day and begun to wane. The conquest of Canaan, the Jewish Commonwealth, the conquering throne of David, and the splendid reign of Solomon which placed the chosen nation at the front of the world's progress and grandly fulfilled the prophetic word assigning to Israel the headship of the nations, are also long past. A line of kings of degenerate spirit have brought decline, and Judah's captives in distant lands strike the harp to plaintive tones, sorrowing for the eclipse of their nation's glory. And not less heavy is the heart of Ezekiel, the prophet of God, as he stands to-day (in vision) upon Mt. Moriah gazing intently at the temple door. He feels that the crisis is near. What is decided in the counsels of heaven? Shall the cloud pass, and Israel, restored to political supremacy, continue to hold the foremost place in outward splendor and power among the nations of the earth, or has her unfaithfulness forfeited the honor, and God determined to change the age and to give this great distinction, for a time at least, to some other people? "The glory of Deeply he muses on this great question full of absorbing interest to himself and to everyone who, like him, watches for the unfolding of the plans of God. And even as he muses he is favored with a mighty and portentous vision. God," the Shekinah of his presence, that luminous cloud which once led the Israelites by night as a pillar of fire, and defended them by day as a pillar of smoke, which brooded over the tabernacle when they halted for rest, which came down and filled the temple when Solomon had dedicated it in solemn prayer, and which caused the very walls to vibrate as with conscious awe before the rapt vision of the great Isaiah, and was ever supposed to dwell between the wings of the covering cherubs in the holy of holies; this symbol and pledge of Jehovah's presence and favor was now seen to hover over the threshold of the temple as if loath to depart; but at length it slowly rises and moves away from the doomed city to yonder mountain summit, far to the East:-and the die is cast. The Jewish age, for the world at large, is suspended, and the Gentile age has begun. Israel's sins have called down the foretold judgments. And although for His own sake, God will not desert them, nor fail in the end to fulfill His plan,-yet for His word's sake the nation as a nation must for a time feel the stroke of his rod and become a hissing and a by-word, while the proud place of leader in outward power and splendor shall be transferred to a succession of powers in the Gentile world. What powers shall they be? About the same time that Ezekiel with sinking heart views the mighty portent at Jerusalem there stands in the capital city of Chaldea, upon a lofty observatory, a man of kingly form and majestic presence and arrayed in the royal purple. A scene is beneath his eye of overpowering grandeur and magnificence. The city is on a level plain with the broad Euphrates running through the center; and from the elevation which he occupies, the whole vast area is within the circle of vision. Ten miles square lies the city, and around it is a gigantic wall of brick, rising up three hundred feet in height, and seventy-five fect in thickness, surmounted by two hundred and fifty towers of massive proportions, and flanked by a moat deep and wide, forming altogether a continuous rampart forty miles in circuit, such as no other city ancient or modern ever possessed, and deservedly accounted one of the seven wonders of the world. Through this wall open a hundred gates, twenty-five on each side; and from gate to gate run fifty broad streets, twenty-five each way, crossing each other at right angles, and dividing the area into squares of about twelve rods on a side. Along these streets ten miles in extent, lying parallel with the river, or crossing it both by bridge and ferry, rise the mansions of the rich, the palaces of the nobles, and the homes of the people. Within those squares are blooming gardens, tinkling |