and was likewise explained by an angel. A ram, pushing west, north, and
southwards, was Persia, whose victory was already nigh, even at the
door; but in his full power came from the west the Grecian he-goat, who
overthrew the ram, and stamped on him, and waxed great; but then his
one great horn was broken, and four others rose up, four lesser kings
instead of one great conqueror; and one of these produced a lesser horn,
which wrought woe and ruin to the pleasant land. This horn was not
meant, like the first, to typify the sinful one of the latter Christian
days, but a terrible foe, who was to try the faith of the Jews; and all
these visions seem to have been intended to show, that though prophecy,
and God's visible dealings with His people, were so nearly over, yet all
kingdoms and empires are His, and are founded, flourish, and decay at
His will.
LESSON XII.
CYRUS.
"When the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion, then were we like
unto them that dream."--_Psalm_ cxxvi. 1.
The Persian power, prefigured by the silver shoulders, the bear and the
ram, was indeed nigh. The ram had two horns, because two nations were
joined together, the Medes, who had revolted from Nineveh, and the
Persians. The Medes lived in the slopes towards the Tigris, and had
learnt to be luxurious and indolent from their Assyrian neighbours; but
the Persians, who lived in the mountains to the eastward, were much more
spirited and simpler, and purer in life. They are thought to be sons of
Japhet, and their religion had not lost all remains of truth, for they
believed in but one God, and had no idols, except that they adored
the sun as the emblem of divine power, and kept horses in his honour,
because they thought he drove his car of light round the sky. They
worshipped fire likewise as the sign of the light-giving and consuming
Godhead; and this notion is not entirely gone yet, so that there are
many Parsees, or fireworshippers, still in the East. Their priests were
called Magi, and their faith was therefore termed Magian. Though it went
astray in adoring these created things, yet it did not teach wickedness,
as did the religions of the sons of Ham; and the Persians were a brave,
upright race, who loved hardy, simple ways, and said the chief things
their sons ought to learn were, to ride, to draw the bow, and speak the
truth.
Cyrus was the son of a Persian king and Median princess, and had been
so well brought up at home, that when as a little boy he visited his
grandfather at Echatana, in Media, he was very much shocked to see the
court drinking to intoxication, and said wine must be poison, since it
made people lose their senses; and he was much puzzled by the hosts of
slaves who would not let people do anything for themselves. He thought
only those who were old and helpless could like being waited on, and he
kept these hardy, simple ways, even after he was a great king over both
nations.
When he was about forty years old one of the kings in Asia Minor made
war on him, and he not only overthrew this monarch, but won that whole
country, which was kept by the Persians for many years. Afterwards, in
the year 540, he marched against Assyria, which had insulted him in the
time of Evil-Merodach. He beat Belshazzar in battle, and then besieged
him in his city; but the Babylonians had no fears; they trusted to their
walls and brazen gates, and knew that he could not starve them out,
as they had so much corn growing within the walls. For two years they
remained in security, and laughed at the Persian army outside; but at
last Cyrus devised a new plan, and set his men to dig trenches to draw
off the water of the Euphrates, and leave the bed of the river dry.
Still there were the great gates upon the river, which he expected
to have to break down; but on the very day his trenches were ready,
Belshazzar was giving a great feast in his palace, and drinking wine out
of the golden vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had brought from the Temple.
Full in the midst of his revelry appeared a strange sight. Near the
seven-branched Candlestick that once had burnt in the Holy Place, came
forth a bodiless hand, and the fingers wrote upon the wall in characters
such as no man knew. The hearts of the revellers failed them for fear,
and the king's knees smote together! Then Nitocris, his mother, a brave
and wise woman, bethought her of all that Daniel had done in the days of
Nebuchadnezzar, and at her advice he was called for. He knew the words;
they were in the Hebrew tongue, the language of his own Scriptures, the
same in which the Finger of God revealed the Commandments. He read them,
and they signified, "God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
Thou art weighed in the balances, and found wanting. Thy kingdom is
divided, and given to the Medes and Persians!"
At that moment Cyrus and his Persians were entering by the river gates,
which had been left open in that time of careless festivity. One end of
the city knew not that the other was taken; and ere the night was past
Belshazzar lay dead in his palace, and the Assyrian empire was over for
ever.
It was 170 years since, by the mouth of Isaiah, God had called Cyrus
by name, had said He would give the nations as dust to his sword, and
stubble to his bow; had said of him that he was His anointed and His
shepherd, and that he would build up the Holy City and Temple, and let
the captives go free without money or price. Moreover, it was seventy
years since Daniel himself had been carried away from the pleasant land,
and well had he counted the weary days prophesied of by Jeremiah; till
now he hoped the time was come, and most earnestly did he pray, looking
towards Jerusalem, as Solomon had entreated, when his people should
turn to God in the land of their captivity, pleading God's goodness and
mercy, though owning that Judah had done wickedly. Even while he was yet
speaking came the answer by the mouth of the Angel Gabriel; and not only
was it the present deliverance that it announced, but that from the
building of the street and wall in troublous times, seventy weeks of
years were appointed to bring the Anointed, so long promised, the real
Deliverer.
Daniel's prayers had won, and in the first year of Cyrus, 536, forth
went the joyful decree that Judah should return, build up the city and
Temple, and receive back their sacred vessels and treasure from the
king, to aid them in their work. Daniel being nearly ninety years old,
did not go with them, but remained to protect them at the court of
Babylon. Cyrus set up his uncle, who is commonly called Darius, to be
king in Babylon, while he returned to Persia; and Daniel, though so old
a man, was made one of the chief rulers under him, one of the three
presidents over the hundred and twenty satraps or princes over the
provinces of the great Persian empire. The envy of the Medes caused
them to persuade Darius by foolish flattery to say that whoever for a
month should make request of god or man, save of the king, should be
cast into a den of lions, and Daniel, who was not likely in his old
age to cease from prayer to his God for any terror of man, endured the
penalty, much against the king's will; but only that again God's power
might be known among the heathen, and His glory proclaimed by the
shutting the mouths of the hungry lions. About the same time he seems to
have shown Darius, who, though not an idolater himself, was puzzled
by seeing that the victuals daily spread on Bel's golden table always
disappeared, that after all, the idol was not the consumer. He spread
ashes on the floor at night, and in the morning showed the king the
tell-tale footmarks of men, women, and children, the priests and their
families, the true devourers of the feast. No wonder that after this,
the Persians ruined the Temple of Bel, while decay began in Babylon,
and the river never being turned back into its proper bed, spread into
unwholesome marshes. Daniel, when at Susa, a Median city on the river
Ulai, beheld his last vision, when the Angel Gabriel prophesied to him
in detail all the wars of the Persians, and afterwards of the Greek
kings of Egypt and Syria, who should make Judea their battlefield, and
the afflictions of the Jews under the great Syrian persecutor. He ended
with a sure promise to Daniel himself, that he should "stand in his lot"
when the end of all things should come; and some time after this blessed
assurance, died this "man greatly beloved," a prince, a slave, an exile,
and a statesman, perhaps the most wonderful of all the sons of David,
except the great Anointed One of whom he spoke. His tomb is still deeply
reverenced, and no one is allowed to fish near the part of the river
where he is said to have seen his vision.
Cyrus died about seven years after Daniel, much loved by his people,
who, for many years, would not believe him dead, but trusted he would
yet return to rule over them.
LESSON XIII.
THE REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE.
"The Lord doth build up Jerusalem, and gather together the outcasts of
Israel."--_Psalm_ clxxvii. 2.
42,360 was the number of Jews who returned to their own land by the
permission of Cyrus. They were under the keeping of Joshua the High
Priest, and of Zerubbabel, son of Salathiel, who was either by birth,
son of King Jehoiachin, or else had been adopted by him from the line of
Nathan, son of David. In either way, he was head of the house of David,
and would have been king, had not the crown been taken away because of
the sin of his fathers. He had, it is said, won favour at the court of
Darius the Mede by his cleverness in a contention of wits, where each
man was asked what was the strongest thing in existence. One said it was
wine, because it made men lose their senses; another said it was the
king, because of his great power; but Zerubbabel said it was woman, and
so ingeniously proved how women could sway the minds of men, that the
king was delighted, and promised to give him whatever he would ask. What
Zerubbabel requested was, that the decree of Cyrus might at once be put
in force, so that his people might go home to their own country. Darius
consented, and put into his hands orders that the vessels of the Temple,
and all the other sacred things, together with a large sum of money,
should be given to him; and thus he went forth, praising and blessing
God. Some of the dispersed of Israel joined the returning Jews, and were
thenceforth counted among them; but so many of Judah itself had become
settled in the place of their exile, that they never returned, though
they sent gifts to assist in rebuilding Jerusalem. It used to be said
that only the bran, or coarse sort of people, returned, the fine flour
remained; but it must have in truth been in general the lovers of ease
who stayed, the faithful who loved poverty in the Promised Land better
than wealth at Babylon.
Zerubbabel was called Tirshatha, or governor. His kingdom was gone, but
his right remained to the fields of Boaz and Jesse at Bethlehem; and
thence should "He come forth Whose goings are from everlasting." The
true birthright was not lost by this son of Solomon, whom God blessed by
the lips of Zechariah for having laid the foundation of His Temple,
and not having despised the day of small things. The blessings to the
Priest, Joshua, were foreshadowings of Him Whose Name he bore, and Whose
office he represented.
All was ruin and desolation; heaps of stones lay where beauteous
buildings had been, and the fields and vineyards lay waste; but glad
promises came by the mouth of Zechariah, that these empty streets should
yet be filled with merry children at play, and with aged men leaning on
their staves, at peace and at ease.
The first thing done by these faithful men, was to set up an Altar among
the ruins, where they might offer the daily sacrifice once more. Then
they began the Temple, in the second year after their return; the
trumpeters blew with silver trumpets, the Levites sang, and the people
shouted; but what was joy to the young, whose hope was fulfilled, was
grief to the old, who had seen Solomon's Temple in its glory. Where was
the Ark? where the manna? where the Urim and Thummim? where the Light
upon the Mercy-seat? Gone for ever, and heaps of ruins around! The old
men wept as the youths cried out for joy, and the shout of rejoicing
could barely be heard for the sound of wailing. But Haggai was sent to
console them with the promise, that though this House was as nothing
in their eyes, its glory should exceed that of the former one, for the
Desire of all nations should come and fill this House with glory. Haggai
had likewise to rebuke the people for their slackness in the work, and
for building their own houses instead of the Temple, and soon they fell
into trouble. The men of Samaria, children of those whom Esarhaddon had
planted there, came, saying that they worshipped the God of the Jews,
and wished to be one with them; but these half idolaters would soon have
corrupted the Jews, so Zerubbabel and Joshua refused their offers.
This made them bitter foes to the Jewish nation, and they wrote to the
Persian court, saying that these newly returned exiles were no better
than a set of rebels, who would destroy the king's power, if they were
allowed to rebuild their city. Cyrus was dead, and his son, Cambyses,
(called also Ahasuerus) who was a cruel selfish tyrant, at once forbade
the work to go on, so that it was at a standstill for many years.
The wealth and luxury of Babylon were fast spoiling the Persians, who
were losing their hardy ways, and with them their honour, mercy, and
truth; and Cambyses was a very savage wretch, almost mad. He made war on
Egypt, where he gained a battle by putting a number of cows, dogs, and
cats, in front of his army, and as the Egyptians thought these creatures
sacred, they dared not throw their darts at them, and so fled away. He
won the whole country; and he afterwards marched into Ethiopia, where he
nearly lost his whole army by thirst in a desert. The Egyptians hated
him because he struck his sword into their sacred bull Apis, in his
anger at their feasting in honour of this creature, when he himself had
just met with such misfortunes. He had but one brother, named Smerdis,
whom he caused to be secretly put to death; and when his sister wept for
him, he kicked her so that she died. No one grieved when he was killed
by a chance wound from his own sword, in the year 522; but a young
Magian priest, pretending to be Smerdis, whose death was not generally
known, became king. However, some of the nobles suspected the deceit;
and one of them, whose daughter was among the many wives of the king,
sent word to her to find out whether the king were the real Smerdis. She
could not tell, having never seen the Prince Smerdis; but her father,
who knew that the young Magian had had his ears cut off for some
offence, told her to examine. She Answered that the king was earless;
and the fraud being thus detected, seven of the great lords combined and
slew him. One daughter of Cyrus still remained and the seven agreed that
one of them should marry her and reign. The rest should have the right
of visiting him whenever they pleased, and wearing the same sort of
tiara, or high cap, with the point upright, instead of having it turned
back like the rest of the Persians. The choice was to be settled by
Heaven, as they thought; namely, by seeing whose horse would first neigh
at the rise of their god, the sun. Darius Hystaspes, who thus became
king in 521, was a good and upright man, in whose reign the Jews
ventured to go on with the Temple. When the Samaritans came and stopped
them, they wrote to beg that search might be made among the records
of the kingdom for Cyrus's decree in their favour, which no one could
change, because the laws of the Medes and Persians could not be altered.
The decree was found, and Darius gave the Jews farther help, and forbade
anyone to molest them; but they were very poor, and the restoration went
on but feebly.
In Darius's reign Babylon revolted, and he laid siege to it. So
determined were the inhabitants to hold out, that they killed their
wives and children in order that the provisions might last longer, and
thus they fulfilled what Isaiah had foretold--that in one day the loss
of children and widowhood would come on them. The place was at last
betrayed by a friend of Darius, who cut off his own nose and ears, and
showed himself bleeding, at the gates, pretending the king had done him
this cruel injury. The Babylonians received and trusted him, and he
soon opened the gates to his master, who terribly punished the rebels,
destroyed as much as he could of the Temple of Bel, and left the city to
go to decay, so that she never again was the Lady of Kingdoms. Darius
was a great King, and records of his history are still to be read, cut
out in the face of the rocks; but he tried two conquests that were far
beyond his strength. He led an army into the bare and dreary country of
the Scythians, the wild sons of Japhet, near the mouth of the Danube,
and there would have been almost starved to death, but that a faithful
camel loaded with provisions kept close to him. He also sent a large
fleet and army to subdue the brave and wise Greeks, who lived in the
isles and peninsulas opposite to Asia Minor, thinking he should easily
bring them under his dominion, but they met his troops at Marathon, and
gained a great victory, driving the Persians home with great loss.
Darius died in 485, and his son, Xerxes, who Daniel had said should stir
up all the east against Grecia, led a huge army to conquer that brave
little country. All the nations of the east were there, and Xerxes made
a bridge of boats chained together over the Hellespont, for them to
cross over. So proud and hasty was he, that when a storm destroyed his
works, he caused the waves to be scourged, and fetters to be thrown into
the sea, to punish it for having dared to resist him. He sat on
his throne to see the army pass over the bridge, and as he saw the
multitudes, he wept to think how soon they must all be dead, but he did
not cease from sending them to their death. Though they were so many,
the Greeks were much braver, and though they overran all the north part
of the country, after they had killed the few brave defenders of the
little pass of Thermopylae, they could not keep what they had taken;
they were beaten both by land and sea, and a very small remnant came
home to Persia in a wretched state. Xerxes was a weak vain boaster, and
was very angry; he wanted to make another attempt, but never did so; he
stayed at home feasting with his wives and living in luxury, till he was
murdered, in the year 464.
LESSON XIV.
THE WALL REBUILT.
"They that be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shall raise
up the foundations of many generations, and thou shalt be called the
repairer of the breach."--_Isaiah_, lviii. 12.
There is great difficulty as to what the Persian kings were called;
their real names were very hard to pronounce, and they are commonly
known by words that mean a king, instead of by their real names. This
makes people uncertain whether the king who is called Ahasuerus in the
Book of Esther be the same with him whom the Greeks call Xerxes, or with
Artaxerxes the Long-armed, his son. It was one or other of these kings
who made a great banquet at his palace at Shuahan or Susa, where the
remains of the pillars that supported the many-coloured hangings of his
palace are still to be seen. After seven days' feasting, he sent in his
pride for Vashti, his queen, to show her beauty to his companions. It
was, as it is still in Persia and most eastern countries, a shame and
disgrace for a woman's face to be seen by any man save her husband; and
Vashti refused this insulting command of the king. He was persuaded by
the satraps that her example would teach all other ladies to think for
themselves, which did not suit these selfish men, who did not care to
have a wife for a help-meet, but only for a slave and toy; so that poor
Vashti was set aside and degraded for being a modest woman; and the
tyrant sent and swept away every beautiful girl from her home, to be
brought to his palace on trial, and if she did not become queen, to be
a slave for ever. Thus the young Benjamite orphan, Esther, whom her
kinsman, Mordecai, had tenderly trained in the right way, was taken
away, never to see his face again, but to live in the multitude of
slavish heathen women, who were taught no kind of employment, and
thought even spinning and embroidery unworthy of a queen. But even the
king's passion was made to serve God's ends. It was for no vain purpose
that the noble beauty of the family of Saul had come down to Esther, and
though she alone demanded no ornaments to set her off to advantage, she
was the only maiden who took the king's fancy. Mordecai, her cousin,
soon after found out a plot against the king's life, and sending her
warning, she told the king, and he was thus saved. Mordecai daily sat at
the palace gate to hear of his beloved cousin, and there daily saw the
king's new counsellor pass by--Haman, an Agagite, descended from that
hateful Amalekite nation, whom Saul ought to have totally destroyed.
Mordecai would not bow before the man whom his law had taught him to
loathe; and Haman, taking offence, and remembering the old enmity
between the two nations, that had begun at the battle of Rephidim,
promised the king 10,000 talents of silver for permission to let their
enemies loose upon the Jews in their still unwalled city, and destroy
them everywhere by a general slaughter. The king actually granted this
horrible request, though without taking the bribe; and Haman, setting
the royal seal to his decree, made it one of the unalterable Persian
laws. The day was fixed for the massacre, and Haman prepared an enormous
gallows on which to hang Mordecai, or as is supposed, to nail him up
alive. But Mordecai contrived to warn Esther, and order her to persuade
the king to save their lives. She was in a great strait, for it was
death to enter the king's presence unbidden, unless he were in the
mood to show mercy, and should hold out his golden sceptre; but in her
extremity she took courage, arrayed herself royally, and came before
him, fainting with fear. The Power above stirred his heart, and he held
out the sceptre; but she dared not accuse his favourite, and only
asked him and Haman together to a banquet in her apartments. Twice she
received them before she took courage to speak; but at last she told the
king that she and her people were sold to utter destruction. He demanded
in anger who had dared to do this. "The adversary and enemy is this
wicked Haman," she said: and when the king found how horrible a decree
had been surprised from him, and that the gallows had been made ready
for the queen's cousin, the man who had saved his life, he flew into
such a rage, that he caused Haman to be hung on his own gallows at once,
and all his sons to be slain with him. Still the order to destroy the
Jews had gone forth, and could not be repealed, but Mordecai obtained
that the Jews should be allowed to arm themselves; and having due
notice, they defended themselves so well that they killed 800 of their
enemies at Susa, and 75,000 of the spiteful Samaritans and other foes
who had come upon them at Jerusalem.