should think two hundred miles north of Babylon. He was commissioned to tell the captives what was going on at Jerusalem, and to foretell the sieges."

"But he finishes by speaking of judgments on the enemies of the Jews, like the others," replied her mother; "and what is more, by wonderful promises of restoration. Look at chap. xxviii. 25, 26: 'Thus saith the Lord; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, and they shall dwell with confidence, when I shall have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the Lord their God.' And this other very precious one (chap. xxxiv. 22, 24), 'Therefore will I save my flock; and they shall be no more a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle. And I will set up one shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, even my servant David, He shall feed them, and He shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it.' Then go on to chapters xxxvi., xxxvii., and we have promises that they shall be gathered from all nations, cleansed from all their iniquities; that a new heart should be given them, and they brought back to their own land, with David to be their king for ever. This is all future, of course. I quote these passages to shew you what still lies before the Jews, and not the Jews only, as I believe, but the whole house of Israel. You forgot these passages, Harry, when you spoke of the Jews as a people who had done their work and were done with."

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"Well, I don't know, mother," he said, shrugging his

shoulders. "I believe I always looked on those chapters as figurative. I thought that good people looked on them as somehow applying to the Christian Church."

"How can we ? and why should we pick out a few verses here and there, and say that they apply to us Christians, when so much of the rest has already been fulfilled to the Jews and their enemies?" said his mother. "It is perverting Scripture, and using it in an unnatural way, when we apply it thus. But let us go on. shall find something to say about Daniel, I think."

We

"Yes, mother," said Stewart. "I thought you were going to forget him altogether; and now I want to know why you say that Ezekiel was an old man when Daniel was a young one. You see Daniel was taken away to Babylon in the reign of Jehoiakim, after the first of Nebuchadnezzar's sieges; but Ezekiel is only spoken of as with the captives in the fifth year of Jehoiachin's captivity."

"Yes, some suppose that he was taken in Jehoiachin's reign, though Josephus says it was with the first captives," his mother answered; "but then he was a priest, which he could not have been under thirty: very likely he was much older. Daniel, on the other hand, was a boy when he was taken. Seventeen was about the age when youths were brought to stand before the kings of Babylon; and they were three years preparing. So I suppose he was about fourteen when he was carried from the land of his fathers."

"And yet Ezekiel afterwards puts his name in company with Noah's and Job's," remarked Martin. "I suppose that was when he had become famous. How famous he must have become, and how much his countrymen must have thought of him, if he could be so spoken of during his very lifetime!"

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CHAPTER XV.

GREAT BABYLON AND HER CAPTIVES.

"These nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." -JER. XXV. 11.

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WE

I wish

E got the Jews to Babylon last night, you know, mother," said Harry, next evening, "and now you would refresh my memory as to what sort of a city that was, and the country of Chaldea in general. I've read a description of Babylon somewhere; but it's all gone now. I can't remember anything about it."

"I'm afraid that your memory requires a good deal of waiting upon, young man," said his mother. "It will find out some day that it can't have a prompter always by, I fancy; however, I suppose I must help you now. Several writers have described Babylon for us, and among others the old historian, Herodotus. And now I suppose that I must tell you what I recollect reading from him about it.

"Babylon stood on the banks of the broad Euphrates, and had a hundred brazen gates. Its walls are said to have measured nearly sixty miles in circumference; to have been eighty-five feet thick, and three hundred and thirtyseven feet high. At the lowest computation the area which they enclosed was five times as big as London."

Yes, it's hardly to be wondered at that Nebuchadnezzar was so proud of it," remarked Martin.

"Yet the poor Jews must have found it, and indeed the

whole country, a great contrast to their own land and to their beloved Jerusalem," Mrs. Conway continued.

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6

'Babylon lay stretched out in a great plain. Its streets and canals were straight, intersecting each other at right angles; and along the banks of the latter there stood wondrous palaces and temples. Everything was on a gigantic scale; and the king's palace alone was more than twice as big as the whole of Jerusalem. It extended over eight miles, and its hanging gardens, built on arched. terraces, which rose one above another, and were richly cultivated, were one of the wonders of the ancient world. But as for Jerusalem, of which the Psalmist speaks as the joy of the whole earth, beautiful for situation,' that stood conspicuous on the mountains, Zion and Moriah, and looked down into deep valleys, having other mountains standing round about it. Thus its fortifications were in great part natural ones; and in every way it was picturesque and irregular; and no doubt, in the eyes of the Jews, incomparably superior to this giant city of their captivity. By the waters of Babylon they sat down and wept when they remembered Zion.' What to them was that broad river, compared with their own Jordan? or that vast spreading plain, with all its trophies of human art, in comparison with the cool valleys and sunny vine and oliveclad cliffs of their native land?

"Think of the various companies of the poor Jewish captives successively getting their first sight of this proud city of the plain; and imagine, if you can, their feelings!

"However, we may comfort ourselves, I think, with the idea that they did not long remain chained and fettered; for there is no evidence of any habitually hard course of treatment being adopted towards them, but rather the contrary. Nebuchadnezzar was as great a builder as he was a conqueror; and he wanted colonists for his great cities, rather than slaves; for as yet they

were but thinly peopled. The ruined Jewish nation was therefore scattered throughout his land. We read of Ezekiel being with the captives by the river Chebar, far away from the capital, you know. And it would appear that in course of time many of the people became possessors of land and houses, wealthy and comfortable, and only too contented in their exile. Babylon was at the height of its glory when the Jewish nation was transported thither; and Nebuchadnezzar was, as I dare say you know, the greatest monarch that it had ever had. Berosus, the native historian, tells us, that it was only in the time of his father, Nabopolassar, that the Assyrian yoke had been thrown off, and that Babylon had become a great empire. Nebuchadnezzar had shewn himself a mighty general during his father's lifetime; and at his death he was at once acknowledged king. (B.C. 604.) During his long reign of more than forty years he obtained such renown, that his name is handed down in the East just as those of Nimrod, Solomon, and Alexander have been. Berosus, of whom I spoke, has preserved for us a record of his mighty deeds, and many other writers have descanted on them. And we find his name stamped on many ancient slates and tiles, which have been found in the ruins. It seems to have been the practice then to record notable actions and events on tiles or bricks."

"And I suppose some of these tiles were rather large," said Janet; "for I remember now how Ezekiel was directed to take one, and pourtray a siege upon it."

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Yes, he was among the first companies of those carried away, who were thus, you see, made acquainted with what was coming on Jerusalem," her mother said. "But I must tell you that these tiles were all dated, and that for seven years of this reign there are no records at all."

"None during the king's madness!" exclaimed Martin.