of Babylon, but the exact time when it should be taken. The prophet Isaiah lived, as you know, before Jeremiah, in the reign of king Hezekiah, nearly two hundred years before the time of Belshazzar, but he speaks of the destruction of Babylon, as if he himself had seen it, in the following remarkable words: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen; all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground." Nay more, this prophet mentioned the very people whom God would employ to punish this proud Babylon, saying, "Go up, O Elam" which was another name for Persia; "besiege, O Media :" he went still further, speaking even of Cyrus, who is thus mentioned by name : "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings to open before him the two-leaved gates, and the gates shall not be shut." How remarkably this prophecy was fulfilled we have already seen in part, in the wide and rapid conquests which God permitted Cyrus to make over kings, and cities, and countries, in consequence of which he became lord of the greatest part of Asia. It was this very. Cyrus who was standing now before the gates of Babylon; but still, because of the height and thickness of their walls, the depth of their trenches, the abundance of their provisions, and the general strength of the whole place, he was greatly at a loss what to do. For the same reasons Belshazzar and his people cared nothing at all for Cyrus and his army, but passed all their time in amusing and indulging them* the city. selves, instead of carefully watching and guarding Cyrus was, perhaps, aware that they were rather careless, and particularly, on one occasion, he was informed that Belshazzar and all the inhabitants of Babylon were about to hold a great feast, which was kept in Babylon every year, and that it was usual on these occasions to spend the whole night in rioting and drunkenness he determined, therefore, that he would try to surprise the city on that important night, thinking that he might never have a better opportunity. All his preparations were made very quietly on the day of the feast, when the people were all too busy to notice what was going on without the walls. I have already told you, Edward, that the river Euphrates flowed through the middle of Babylon : along each side of it were great embankments of brick to keep the river in its channel, and to protect the city; and these walls, on the banks of the river, had in them brazen gates opening into the streets of the city, which might be shut in time of danger, so that if the people had been upon their guard, it would have been next to impossible for an enemy to have entered the city, even by this way; and then there was the river itself, which was far too deep for them to walk through. But this difficulty, great as it was, Cyrus managed to get over in the following way. To the west of the river there was a great lake into which the waters of the river could be turned, so as to leave the channel of it in the city nearly dry. On the day, therefore, of this great feast, Cyrus gave orders that at a set time in the evening, the waters of the river were to be turned into this great lake, and he took care to have his army ready at the walls of the city, to go up the bed of the river as soon as the water was low enough for them to walk in it: that so they might enter the city at the brazen gates, which were on each side of the river, the king's palace being near one end of the bridge which crossed the river in the middle of the city. Thus was Cyrus waiting with his mighty men of war, ready, like a hungry lion, to spring upon his prey. Meanwhile what was Belshazzar doing? He, as if it had been a time of peace and pleasure, and he had nothing to think of but to enjoy himself, was making a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drinking wine before the thousand; and he was wicked enough to send for the golden vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, that he, and his princes, and his wives might drink therein. So they drank wine in those holy vessels, and as they drank, they mocked at the Lord God, for whose service they had once been set apart, and sang the praises of their own gods of gold, of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone, who had given them, as they thought, all their great victories and rich treasures. But in the midst of this unholy mirth, they saw a sight which stilled every sound of joy, and filled every heart with terror; for upon one of the walls of the apartment of the king's palace in which they were feasting, were seen fingers of a man's hand, which wrote upon the plaster of the wall: the king saw the part of the hand that wrote, "and immediately his countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, and his limbs trembled with fear, and his knees smote one against another." All the Chaldeans, the astrologers, and wise men of Babylon were sent for to explain the words that had been written on the wall, and the king declared that the man who found out the meaning of them should be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and be made the third ruler in his kingdom. But the wise men of Babylon could not even read the writing. The king's distress, when he found this, was great indeed, and the news of his grief having been told to the queen his mother, who does not seem to have been at the banquet, she came immediately to put him in mind of Daniel, whom Nebuchadnezzar had set over all the other wise men, because he had found in him light, and understanding, and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods. Daniel was accordingly sent for, and brought into the king's presence, who little thought what a solemn message he was to receive from the lips of this holy man. E. Why, what did Daniel tell him? M. He began by repeating to him the melancholy story of Nebuchadnezzar's fall; how he had had his glory taken from him, and been driven from the sons of men, and then he said to him, " And thou, his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this: but hast lifted up thy self against the Lord of heaven, and hast brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, and thy wives have drank in them, and thou hast praised thy gods of silver, of gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified, therefore was the part of the hand sent from him, and this writing was written." : Then Daniel read to him the awful words which were written in the Chaldean language on the wall. They were these, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. And the meaning which Daniel gave to them was this:: 1st. God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. That is, he hath set bounds to it and brought it to an end. 2d. Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting; which means that the Almighty had weighed, or considered carefully, the conduct of Belshazzar, and that he found him wanting in every thing which he required of him, and unworthy of the high station in which his Providence had placed him. 3d. Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. Such were the mysterious words, the mere sight of which had so terrified the king. What, then, must have been his feelings, when he heard their meaning? E. Perhaps, mother, he was foolish enough not to believe them. |