it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in THE LAND OF SHINAR ; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." But the Lord interfered: He came down: confounded their speech, and scattered them. The Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called BABEL; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of the whole carth." (Gen. xi.) So early was the land of Shinar the scene of confederate evil, and of judgment from the hand of God.

After this, ages roll away, and we hear nothing of Babylon or of Shinar. It is casually mentioned as supplying the goodly garment* which tempted Achan amongst the spoil of Jericho; but until Jerusalem had been sufficiently tried, to see whether she would prove herself worthy of being God's city, Babylon was kept in abeyance. The founder of Babylon's greatness was that great king who was raised up to scourge Jerusalem, and who commenced "A goodly Babylonish garment," literally, "a goodly garment of Shinar."

the "Times of the Gentiles," by receiving from God that endowment of power which was taken from Israel, and remains vested in the Gentiles till Jerusalem shall be forgiven and cease to be trodden down. It was Nebuchadnezzar who "walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spake and said, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" (Dan. iv.) The greatness of Babylon therefore dates only from Nebuchadnezzar.

Nevertheless, long before Nebuchadnezzar—whilst as yet the glory of Babylon was not, its greatness is mentioned in the Scripture prophetically. It pertains to prophecy to describe things not yet come to pass: to speak of things that are not as though they were. Isaiah lived more than a hundred years before Nebuchadnezzar. At that time Babylon was comparatively insignificant and unknown: yet Isaiah speaks of it as "the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency"-" the golden city." He speaks of a glory not seen as yet, and then decribes its final doom. “It shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah": it shall be "swept with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts." Isaiah also declares that the same almighty hand which was then about to raise up Babylon to be the scourge of Israel, should finally be stretched out to deliver Israel, and be turned in vengeance upon Babylon, and Babylon's last great king. Accordingly,

the chapter before us describes the glory of Babylon, the fall of Babylon, the release of Israel. It will be for us to consider whether these predictions have been FINALLY accomplished, or whether the great burden of this prophecy remains yet to be fulfilled.

The thirteenth chapter of Isaiah, and the fourteenth as far as the end of the twenty-seventh verse, should be read as one prophecy. The subject is continuous throughout, and is concluded by these words: "The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot; THEN shall his yoke depart from off them (Israel), and his burden depart from off their (Israel's) shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed, upon the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it, and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?"

These are remarkable and solemn words, and certainly we cannot say that they have been fulfilled. Will any one affirm that God's purpose which He hath “purposed upon the whole earth” was accomplished when Babylon was overthrown by the Medes and Persians? Did "the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations," then fulfil its ultimate designs? Was the Assyrian then trodden under foot in THE LAND AND ON THE MOUN

TAINS OF ISRAEL, and that at a time when the yoke of bondage is finally broken from off the neck of Israel? If this were so we should no longer see Jerusalem trodden down. The "times of the Gentiles" would have ended: Israel would be gathered, and Jerusalem be "a praise in the earth." The concluding words of this prophecy, therefore, might alone convince us that it yet remains to be fulfilled.

The thirteenth and fourteenth chapters should, as I have already said, be read continuously until the end of the twenty-seventh verse of the fourteenth chapter. In comparing however the two chapters this difference may be noticed, that the thirteenth dwells exclusively on the glory and fall of Babylon the city; whereas the fourteenth dwells principally on the glory and downfall of Babylon's King. I say principally, because Babylon is distinctly referred to in the fourteenth chapter. It is there called, "the golden city"; and there also we find this record of its doom: "I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and reinnant, and son, and nephew, saith the Lord. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts."

And will any one read the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah as a whole and say that it has been fulfilled? Has he yet appeared among the nations who is here styled Lucifer, i. e., the bringer of light—the day

star? Has there been as yet any one who, (after arrogating to himself the place of Christ, and professing to be to the nations as the bright and morning star, and taking his seat upon the Mount of the congregation (i. e., Mount Zion) on the sides. of the north, saying, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High,") has been, because of this blasphemy, smitten and brought down to Hades, to the sides of the pit? We have never yet seen such blasphemous assumption as this, neither have we seen judgment exercised thereon. He has not yet appeared, who on descending into Hades, shall be there saluted in solemn irony by the kings of the nations as one greater than they all-the greatest of all monarchs and of all conquerors, but who is at last cast out, dishonoured like "a dishonourable branch, as α carcase trodden under foot." No such king of Babylon has as yet existed-none such been destroyed. The events here spoken of are not accomplished; neither can be, till the hour comes for "the times of the Gentiles" to end, and for the yoke to be broken from off the neck of Israel. Twice is this marked in this chapter. One passage has been already quoted-the other is as follows: "It shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee (i.e., Israel) rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How