BABYLON TAKEN.

You have already heard a good deal of the history of King Nebuchadnezzar, dear children; and if you read to yourselves the fourth chapter of the book of Daniel, you will find something more about him which I am sure will interest you. You will there read a very remarkable dream, sent by God to Nebuchadnezzar, to warn him of his sins, and of the judgment which those sins would bring upon him. And we are told in that

chapter of the interpretation of the dream by Daniel; and how, notwithstanding,

Nebuchadnezzar

went on still in his wickedness until the judgment came, and his reason was taken from him, and he was driven from among men, and had his dwelling with the beasts of the field, and was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair became like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws. And then we read of the mercy of God to him in all this, when, after seven years, he lifted up his eyes, and his understanding returned, and he blessed God, and praised and honoured him; and was restored to his kingdom and his throne. Now, this story is just one instance more of God's

justice and mercy in his government of mankind. And it shows us, too, the wonderful power of God's grace in subduing such a proud heart as Nebuchadnezzar's; and his great goodness in pardoning one so wicked. No sins are too great to be pardoned, if they are repented of; God can forgive them for Christ's sake. He says, "Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isa. i. 18.) And no heart is too hard to be softened and converted by his Holy Spirit. He said to the hard hearted people of Israel and Judah, "A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony

heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh." (Ezek. xxxvi. 26.) But then we must pray for all these mercies. If you wish for pardon, and for a new heart, say, "Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; thou art the Lord my God." (Jer. xxxi. 18.)

Two more kings reigned in Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar. They did not, like him, cast away their idols, and turn to God; they went on in sin to the end of their lives. The last king of Babylon was named Belshazzar, and with him ended that great kingdom; and the beautiful city, which had been called "the glory of the Chaldees' excellency," was taken, and afterwards destroyed; so that the place where it had once stood

became "as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah." (Isa. xiii. 19.)

you

All this had been foretold by God's prophets many years before. I think it will interest you to read some of these prophecies, and then to see how very exactly they were all fulfilled. But, first, I must tell what those sins were which led God thus to destroy Babylon. They were, particularly, the sins of idolatry, pride, and cruelty. You already know that the Babylonians were idolaters. The chief god they worshipped was called Bel; and a temple for his service stood in the great city of Babylon. Another of their idols was called Nebo. We read of these two idols in another chapter of Isaiah:-" Bel