THE KING’S BUSINESS
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amid the ruins of ancient Babylon, of which Nebuchandnezzar said, ‘Is not this great Babylon which I have built for the house of the Kingdom, by the might of my power ?’ A h! proud monarch, thou whom God honored, making thee the head of Gen tile Kingdoms, and under whom was begun ‘The times of the Gentiles,’ the ‘Seven times’ of Israel’s punishment (Lev. 26), thou has been brought down to the dust. Thou didst set up the image in the plain of Dura, which only three of God’s chosen people refused to worship, and here one greater than thee shall, in the closing days of The times of the Gentiles’ cause men to worship another image, in the attempt to blot out the Name and worship of God from the earth (Rev. 13). But the man, whose ‘Number is 666,’ and the city which he and the deluded nations shall rebuild, with its concentrated wickedness, shall per ish suddenly in the supernatural conflagra tion described in the eighteenth chapter of Revelation. Ah! ye nations! take heed concerning the mourning of that day. “My interest increased as I took a walk with Dr. Koldeway out into the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar’s palace, which he has so largely excavated. First we went to the northeast corner, where, amid the walls of the fort, stands the lion (carved from a solid stone) emblem of the Babylonian head of empires. The Gate is ornamented with lions and dragons (sort of walking ser pents). Here the walls have been exca vated way down into the water, seepage from the river level, and they have .been unable to get down to the actual bottom. Three different levels of the pavement are visible, showing how in the several de structions of the city the ruins had been leveled off and a new city built above. The intricacy of the passages, rooms, courts, etc., were almost bewildering. The largest court, with an immense room on the south side, Dr. Koldeway concludes must be the ‘Mene TekeP hall. Only the foundations remain, as all the superstructure has suf fered the common-experience of the ruins m the pillage of the valuable bricks for
building other cities. But it seems very probable that this was the very hall in which Belshazzar held the memorable feast and heard the rebuke of God by Dan iel the prophet. Can you imagine my emo tions and thoughts as I' stood there in a little season of meditation and prayer?” “Monday morning I went all over the ruins again, taking several kodak pictures. We went to the great. Greek theater and the immense temple to the south, where there are 75 feet of debris above the foun dations into which Dr. K, has delved. I had. a- wonderful season of prayer and meditation as I sent. Shamu away and sat alone on the supposed, foundations of the Tower of Babel. God be praised for the thoughts and spirit of intercession which He gave me there. “We secured donkeys, driving on with the carriage as far as we could, till stopped by the great canals. Then our little don keys took us safely along to these ruins in the (supposed) plain of ‘Dura.’ The main ruin is the great tower which has a rival probability of being the real Tower of Babel. It is an imposing structure of sev eral great strata, decreasing in size to the the top. The main fact of great interest to me was the fused condition of masses of brick on the very top. They had evidently been molten together by great heat and ruptured and tumbled down in large, masses, some remaining on the top and others rolled down the sides. A small portion of the top section is left standing, but split apparently from the top downwards. From whence came the terrible and prolonged heat that could fuse these masses of brick, and how were they ruptured into these great fragments and thrown down the sides?. Evidently it must have been a su pernatural heat (perhaps lightning or other electrical power) from above. And why this Divine interposition here? It at least gives support to the probability that this was the real Tower of Babel, where the pride of man was rebuked and the language of the earth confounded. The fusing was so perfect that I could scarcely break off a little piece for a sample.”
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