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Finding of the Body of Kaineses the Great second Pharaoh'of the (ireat Oppression, 43 Description f)f llie Hotly— 'I he Keiynof tliis Giciit Monarch— C!harart<.*r of the Man as porliayeil by the Muniniy's Fea- tures — leading Causes of the OJ)prL•!.^■ilace taken by the living creatures of the present creation. Among these we may expect man to be finally named ; whether or not, however, this was the case we cannot say until the concluding lines of the old Assyi-an epic of the creation have been disinterred from the du5t-heaj)s of the past." It is also believed that this sixth tablet also contained an account of the institution of the Sabbath. By consulting the whole of the available portions of the epic, the most casual reader will be struck with the resem- blance to the ofjcning verses of Genesis, leaving no room to doubt that both have reference to the same events. IN THE CHALDEAN TABLET LEQEND OF THE FLOOD the resemblances to the Bible narrative of that event are also very remarkable. "The deluge, the ship for saving life, the gathering of the wild beasts of the field, the shutting of the door, the mountain of Nizar, the sending forth a dove and a raven, and finally the rainbow," which are all referred Marvellous Discoveries in Hiblc Lands. 17 to, may be easily recognized as bring in accord with the story of the flt)od recorded in (ienesis. The following is the translation of the inscription on one of the baked terracotta tablets found at Nineveh, in the library of Assur-bani-pal, king of Assyria, who reigned some seven hundred years B. C, and which is now in the British Museum : "The gods Anu, Bel, Ea, and Ad.ir, assembled together in the city Surippak on the Euphrates, decreed a Hood, and they bade Khasisadra to build a ship or ark large enough to hold himself, his family, and his servants and cattle. When the ship was ready Khasisadra entered with his possessions, and closed the door, and the lloods came and destroyed mankind. The flood lasted six davs and seven nights, when the goddess Ishtar having entreated the gods on behalf of mankind, the rain ceased. 'I'he shijj sailed over the sea towards the land of Nizir, where it remained until the waters abated. After seven days Khasisadra sent forth a dove, bat it returned. Ke next sent forth a swallow, and that also returned ; and lastly he sent forth a raven, which did not come back again. When Khasisadra saw this he sent forth his family and servants from the ark, and upon an altar, set up upon a mountain peak, he offered sacrifices to the gods. The gods accepted the sacrifices, and rejoiced in their sweet-smelling savor ; they clustered about them like flies." The " bow of Anu " (the sky-god) is also mentioned. -Fhis Assyrian account of the Flood is told to the mythical hero, Gilgamish by Khas- isadra the sage." Other similar incriptions to this tablet refer to the Tower of Babel, and the confusion of tongues ; and when the Chaldean traditions records are all discovered it will doubt- less be ascertained that their corroboration of the Bible story is one of the utmost importance. According to the opinion of the best authority, they were written and de- 1 8 Marvellous fHscovefiis in lUhii- Lands. posileil in Archive ClKimbers of Chaklea long before Moses wrote the Pcntateiith, and could therefore have had no connection with each other. As it was also clearly proved by scholars of the highest standing in Great I'ritain and elsewhere, when assembled in Con- vention at the annual meeting of the Victoria Institute in London, July 1894, that "from readings in recently deciphered Assyrian tablets. Monotheism (the belief in one God only), and the name of Aa, Jehovah, was known in Assyria generations before the time of Abraham," the mention of a numlier of gods in tlie tablet inscriptions re- ferred to had no df>ut)t reference to the idea of a plurality of persons in the Godhead, such as wc have revealed in the Scriptures, as the " Father, Son, and IIt)ly Ghost." The illustration of one of these ASSYRIAN TABLETS on the op[)osjte i)age will give tlie reader an idea of what they really are. As a result of the decipherment of these and other similar inscriptions which have lately been discovered. " the gen- eral course of events and the internal develoj^ment of Babylon and Assyria have become clear. We have quite complete histories of a number of the Assyrian kings who up to a short time ago were known only by name. The lists of the occupants of the Babyk)nian and Assyrian thrones are now virtually complete, onward from the fifteenth century before our era. We know far more of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon than we do of their contemporaries, Hezekiah and Manasseh of Judea ; of earlier times we have at least as copious records as of the early days of Greece and Rome ; and if I'le hopes of the present are fulfilled, in another I i Marvellous Discoveries in lUhle I. an Is. 19 \ •t i ri'iK Bakep TKRR.\-C(vrrA Takikt, inscribed in ciiiicirDriii clia.actuis vvitli the Assyrian Accoiml of tlic Deluge, from llie Library t)f Assviibani pal, king of Assyria (H.*.'. 668-626), at Ninevi-li. (British Miiseuin, No. K, 3375.) fifty years our knowledge of Assyria and Babylonia bids fair to rival in completeness what we know of the Middle Ages." It is becoming more evident every day that the resurrection of the past is going hand in hand with the revelation of the present. Among the most WONDERFUL AROHJEOLOOIOAL FINDS in recent years " are the Assyrian Sculptures from ancient Nineveh, which have now been removed to the British Mus- eum. The preservation of these valuable art-relics may be said to be cheifly due to the circumstance of their being g • - r 20 Marvellous Disioveriis iti IH'olc Lands. carvings upon thin slabs of stone. Had large blocks been eniployt'd it is doubtful if they would ever have been brought to Jiluropean Museums where only their historical value can be justly appreciated. It is doubtful too, in that case, wiicther they would have escaped destruction by violence or the ravages of time. Hut it fortunately happened that wlien the ancient buildings were destroyed, these precious relics were safely buried among the derbis, and some of them are to this day almost as fresh and perfect as when they were finished by the sculptors of ancient Nineveh." The best j^eriod of Assyrian Sculpture is that of Assur- bani-pal, or Sardanapolus as he has sometimes been called He was the eldest son of Esar-haddon, and last of the Assyrian kings but one, empire of Assyria having fallen during the reign of his son Saracus, through the treachery of his chief general Nabopolassar, father of the renowned Nebuchadnezzar. '* He was in every sense a great king. He built the most magnificent of all the Assyrian palaces, and collected within their walls the finest sculpture which could be produced by native artists. He had a mind in advance of the time. While other kings had been content to leave behind them records of their exploits inscribed on stone tablets and cylanders, he it was who founded the vast collection of clay tablets whereon were inscribed copious vocabularies and other information of the most valuable kind, including the legends which relate to the Creation and the Deluge." "Through the remarkable excavations that have been carried on during the past decades in the seats of ancient culture, and dirough the laborious researches of modern scholars, entire civilizations, of which only a short time ago it was barely known that they had existed at all, have been T" Marvellous Discoveries in lUhlc Lands. 21 revealed to the astonished ga/e of this generation. Kroni laboriously si)elling out each word, like a child learning the alphabet, the decipherment gradually advanced, until to-day scholars read an ordinary CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTION with almost the same ease as a i)age of Hebrew in the Old Testament. In some cases, however, the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions was attended to with even greater difficulty than the reading of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, of the celebratj ' Rosetta Stone ; but the two achievements are to be reckoi. d among the most notable triumphs of the human mind." As to THE ROSETTA STONE DISCOVERY it was by far the most important arch?eological discovery that has yet been made in the Orient. The inscription contained on this stone formed a key to the decii)herment of the F.gyptian language and the interpretation of the Egyptain records "which the Egyi)tians of old with great lavishness carved on their buildings and monuments, espec- ially their obelisks, painted on the frescoed interiors of their tombs, and indeed placed on almost every object of use or art. These writings were in characters called hieroglyphics^ which is a Greek term meaning sacred carvings, or priestly writing," The knowledge of the reading of these inscriptions having died out with the decline of Egypt, the term " hiero- glyphics " became a synonym for every inscribed character that is of a mysterious nature. The discovery of the Rosetta Stone was made in 1799 by Bossard, a French officer, during the expedition of the French to Egypt under Napoleon. It was found among the ruins 22 Alarvelluus Disccicrics in Bible Lands. at Fort St. Julien, a short distance from the Rosetta mouth of the Nile, and four miles north of the town ot Rosetta, and came into the possession of the British Museum in i8oi) after the ciuitulation of Alexaudrea bv the British. This stone is a slab of black basalt about three feet long, bearing an inscrijition in three different characters, as will be seen by illustration on page 23, the lower of which was in Greek, and of course'was readily translated. The in- termediate text was in characters since called Demotic, that is the writing of the common people ; that at the head was in mystic hieroglyphic character. " This inscription was copied and circulated among scholars, and after long and ingenious efforts the alphabet of the hieroglyphics was made out," being mainly effected by the French savant, Champollion, " so that now the^>e carvings are read with ease and certainty, and a new flood of light has been thrown on the history of ancient Egypt." The Greek inscription, when translated, revealed that it was an ordinance of the priests of Memphis, decreeing certain honors to Ptolemy Epijihanes, one of the Greek sovereigns who ruled over Egypt from the time of its conquest by Alexander to the first century B. C. "It con- tains a command that the decree should be inscribed in the sacred letters (hieroglyphics), the letters of the country (de- motic), and the Greek letters, — and this for the convenience of the mixed poi)ulation of Egypt under its Greek rulers. It was also ordered that a copy of the decree should be set up in every temple of the first, second and third grade in Egypt." In the decipherment of the various inscriptions on the tablet, " 'x was natural to conclude that the three texts were the same in substance," such as that inscribed on the cross of our Saviour by Pilate, " and 'accordingly earnest efforts ■nn IP" i I Marvellous Discoveries in lUble Lands, 2}^ »•'';' 'V:;<»H»lir!it^:.S»»t...ittIlllCtll8'!t*f»»».-'^<;i>1X ,<)< X'' /l1.l*3-'-iMr«il<3t,?ilJ"T«<'.l !!!>(tlllll .'.t?''*"*, (r/ii M('SI-H-■^/^."l.-.I'5^^^■^?!•=•+'f'l»'3»-■•.^^^•JttI ri-i(iSL2E;\ .^:i;>^ i #>- wiitttii** •*."*" i"* >r*w"-*£MM*n3^**T '^ ■ The " RosETTA Stone." were made to decipher tiie hieroglyphics hy aid of the Greek. The first clew was obtained by noticing that cer- tain groups of hieroglyphic characters were inclosed in oval rings," or cortouches, " and that these groups corresponded in relative position with certain proper names, such as Ptolemy, etc., in the Greek text." The ui)per portion of the above illustration, were it large enough, would show these oval rings inclosing the hieroglyphic characters. The characters arc read from right to left. In reference to the late Assyrian discoveries. Prof A. H. Sayce, D. D., LL. D., Professor of Oriental Languages, 24 Marvellous Discoveries in Bible Lauds. Oxford University, England, who is one of the leading scholars in the decii)herment and translation of these ancient records, states, that " the revelations made to the archaiol- ogist by Egypt have been exceeded by those made to him by Babylonia and Assyria. The antiquity of Babylonia vies with that of Egypt. The earliest Babylonia monuments brought to Europe, and now in the Mu.seum of Louvre, tes- tify to the existence of an ancient literary culture as well as to an extensive commerce by sea and land. The Dorite, out of which the monuments are carved, was imported from the distant land of Magan, the name under which Median and the Sinaiatic peninsula were denoted." He also asserts in reference to Egyptian tablet discoveries, that it is proved beyond all (juestion that "the age of Exodus was an age of extreme literary activity, and that the Israelites and their leaders lived in the midst of educated and literary popula- tions. Egy])t, wherein they had sojourned so long, was preeminently a land of scribes and of writing. Everything was written upon : the walls of tombs and temples and houses, as well as the small objects of everyday use. Go where they might, letters and inscriptions stared them in the face. Canaan, the goal at which they aimed, was likewise a country of schools and libraries. It had also absorbed the literary culture of Babylonia, and Kirjath-sepher, or * Booktown,' was not the only ciiy in it which contained a library or an archive-chamber. Even in the desert the Israelites were surrounded by literary influences. The archcTEological evidences for the highly literary character of the age of Moses are sufficiently numerous and certain. To imagine that the Israelites alone were buried in a slum- ber of ignorance, while the populations around them were busily engaged in reading and writing, is contrary to pro- Marvellous Discoveries in Bible Lauds, 25 bability and common-sense. To prove anything so incredi- ble requires arguments and not assumptions, and the argu- ments have not yet been j>roduced. That they will ever he forthcoming we may be ^xirmitted to doubt." This statement of Pxofessor Sayce is certainly very strong, and overthrows the idea held by many, that the Israelites, when leaving their bondage in Egypt, were as ignorant and uncouth as the American negroes on their emancipation .from slavery. Those who have carefully studied the skill and ingenuity manifested by Israel in the construction of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, will have no difficulty in accepting the views of Professor Sayce, From some of the late discovered ret:ords it may also be learned that away back m THE ANTEDILUVIAN PERIOD, over one thousand years before the flood, a renowned king, known as " Sargon of Accad," flourished in Chaldea, found- ing an empire which extended to the westward as far as Cyprus. It is recorded of this monarch that he marched his armies four times to the shores of the Mediterranean sea, and eventually succeeded in welding all Western Asia into a single kingdom, and that his son and successor, Naram- Sin, continued the victorious career of his father, pushing his conquests southward to the border of Egypt, overthrow- ing the king of Midian, and becoming master of the coi)per mines in the vicinity of .Sinai. Sargon is also accredited as being the founder of a great library, long famous in the an- nals of Babylonian literature. An authority, referring to this ancien*. monarch, says : *'One of the most beautiful specimens of Babylonian art is a seal which was engraved during, his .reign." 3 » ; 26 Alarvellous Discoveries in Bible Lands. Although this monumental record is startling in its nature, giving us a glimpse of the achievements gained by conquer- ors during the antediluvian age of our world : yet it is remarkable Low closely it coincides with the Scripture nar- rative, which assures us that " there were giants" and "MIGHTY MEN OP RENOWN" in the earth in those days, leading us to infer that the ante- diluvians manifested all the characteristics of Noah's prog- eny, so far as war, rapine, and wickedness was concerned. Of this people our Saviour says : " They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away." Boston, in his " Forfefold State," makes the astounding assertion, drawn from these words of our Saviour regarding this people, that, owing to their wickedness and intemperate habits, " they were drowned in wine and then in water." However this latter remark may be, or however we miy feel inclined to discredit the testi- mony of the silent witness'es referred to, can we honestly doubt that during the sixteen hundred years extending from the creation of man to the deluge, according to Ussher's chronology, that dynasties and kingdoms were established in various parts of the Eastern world similar to those after- wards founded by the descendants of Shem, Ham and Jap- heth ? If we take it for granted that the pe'^pb increased more rapidly during the antediluvian period, owing to their longevity, than they afterwards did, it is not surprising that an empire was established in Chaldea five hundred years after the expulsion of our first parents from the Garden of Eden. According to the Scripture narrative, it is evident that four hundred years after the deluge, when Abraham I ■m IIIIIIUH Marvellous Discovcr'ws in Bible Lands. 27 entered Canaan, the F.gyptian monarchy had been founde(^ and kingdoms established in various other places. It is recorded that, soon after the murder of Abel, Cain builded a city in the land of Nod, which the Jewish historian, Josephus, says, he fortitied with walls and compelled his family to come together to it. This city was called after the name of its founder's eldest son, Enoch, and was doubtless the beginning of THE FIRST DESPOTIC EMPIRE ON EARTH, the ruler of which may justly be termed the " Original Nimrod" of Sacred story. Josephus also records that Cain became a great leader of men into wicked courses, and that his posterity were very numerous, and became intolerable in war, and vehement in robberies. By a careful investiga- tion of the Bible record it will be found that those who are called "mighty men of rencvvn" were persons who had sig- nalized themselves by some great military achievement, such as David, and his heroic bodyguard referred to in the twenty-third chapter of second Samuel. Frou) other records of discovery it may be gathered that THE ELAMITB DYNASTY, of which Chedorlaomer was the chief ruler in the days of " Arioch. king of Ella.sar," was a [>owerful confederacy, which must have been establisiied at least one hundred years before the migration of Abraham from Mesopotamia. An incidental notice of the ravages of this monarch and his three allies, given in the fourteenth chapter of Genesis gives us a ghmpse of the vastness of that kingdom of West Central Asia, over which he bore the sway it seems evi- dent that his reign extended over the Tryo-Kuphrates basin, 28 Marycllotis Discoveries in Dible- Lands. and westward over Syria and Canaan to ilie border of Egypt, a territory which is estimated as being over looo miles from East to West, and 500 miles from North to South. Following the footsteps o! this potentate's march, which is called THE FIRST MILITARY OAMPAION OP AUTHENTIC HISTORY, we can see him traversing with ra])id marches the great highway leading from Chaldea to the Mediterranean, along the eastern banks of the Euphrates to Ilaran, crossing the fords, and passing Carchemish of the Hittites, on to Dam- ascus : thence down the east of the Jordan, smiting '• the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in the plain of Kiriathaim, and the Horites in their Mount Seiv, unto El-paran, which is by the wilder- ness ; all the country of the Amalekites, and the Amorites that dwelt in Hazezon-tamar." Not only that, but finally fighting a pitched battle in the vale of Siddim, with the five kings of the Cities of the Plain, whom he conquered, carrying off Lo' with the spoils of Sodom, until the booty was rescued by Abraham and his heroiC' bund of trained servants, who, by fait h^ turned to flight tiie armies of these aliens, at the V'ountain of Dan, where they were holding a jubilee over their late victory. Such is the substance of the Scripture narrative concerning this great warrior, whose name is given on the Babj'Ionia monuments as Kudur-Mabug, lord of ' ' ■ -. '* minister of the god l.agamar," who was one of the vr . ■: nes in the FJamite pantheon. Thus then, by the * c( iry 'nd study of the ancient monuments of Babylonia. i'. ■■:■:■ !t;al character of Chedorlaomer's campaign has \ \ ^mmmMMMM Mnrvclluns Discoveries in Bible Lands. 29 been vindicated beyond all doubt. It has also been veri- fied by Oriental tiesearch that Nimrod is a real historical personage, who wafs doubtless the founder of the Elamite monarchy, thus overthrowing the baseless assertion of secular critics who would have us believe that he was one of the characters of Babylonia mythology. Another ancient kingdom of great influence and jjower, which flashes across: our patli like a meteor, in the Bible narrative, is that of THE EMPIRE OF THE HITTITBS, referred to in Judges i. 26 ; i Kings x. 29 ; 2 Kings vii. 6, By comjiaring these passages with other portions of Scripture history where reference to the Hittites is made, we are led to infer that a strong nation of this people must have existed in some region ajarc from those of the same name who resided in the land of Canaan. It is explicitly stated that Solomon supplied horses and chariots for " all the kings of the Hittites," and also that the Syri^uis on hearing the sup- posed " noise of a great host" rushing to battle, during the night seige of Samaria, imagined that the king of Israel had hired agaimt them, "the kings of the Hittites," implying that the H'ttites were an important }3eople, otherwise the powerful host of Benhadad would not have fled for their lives as they did, leaving their valuable property behind. Although the proof from the Bible record that a strong nation of the Plittites was established in some country adjac- ent to Palestine is strongly presumptive, yet it is only within the last few years that we have been led to know anything re- liable about the greatness of that peopli- wiio are incidentally mentioned in the Scripture narrative. Historical inscriptions discovered at Hamath. Cappadocia, I.ycaonia, in theTaurtus •'•- ••""" tr- 30 Morvil/ons Discoveries tJi Bible Lauds. range of mcjimlains and in Kgypt and Assyria, U.-ave no room to doubt that the Hittites once formed an important kingdom north ofCariaan, their dominion extending through- out the greater part of Asia Minor, and were able to engage in warfare with Eg>'pt in the days of her greatest power, and also to hold their ground even in the face of the greal Assy- rian monarch, Tiglath-Pileser. A few extracts from THE BPIO OF PBNTAUR i mi engraved on a huge tableau discovered in the main hall of the great rock-cut Ten^plo of Nubia, will give some idea ol what the Mittite nation really was. The hero of this poem is i*haraoh, Rameses II., and the campaign which it cele- brates was undertaken in the ftfth year of his reign, against the Khita, or Hittites, and their allied forces in Syria and Asia Minor, who had revolted from paying tribute to the monarch of Iilgypt. Against this great host " Rameses took the field in person with the flower of the Egyptian army, traversing the Land of Canaan which still remained loyal, and established his Syrian headquarters at Shubtin, a fortified town in a small 'valley a short distance to the south-west of Kadesh," one of the chief cities of the Hittites ou the Orontes river north of Mount Lebanon. " Here he remained stationary for a few days, reconnoitring the surrounding country, and endeavor- ing, but wiihont success, to earn the wherea?)Outs f)f the tsnemy. The latter, meanwhile, had their spies out in all directions, and knew every movement of the Egxptian host." At a cTitical moment the enemy enx;rged from his ambush, and surrounded Kame->es with right, royal and desperate v.ilor, and charged the 1 mm i ^■1 MatvflUms Discoveries iit l^iblc Lands, 33 ( the hoofs uf my horses. I foughl alone I Alont- I over- threw millions ! It was only my good horses who obeyed my hand, when I found myself alone in the midst of the foe. Verily they shall henceforth eat their corn before me c.aily in my royal palace, for they alone were with me in the lovu' of danger." It is also recorded that '• six times he rushed upon the foe. Six times lie tranipled Uiem like siraw beneath liis horses' hoofs. Six times he dispersed them single-handed, like a god. Those that he slew not with his hand, he pur- sued unto the water's edge, causing them to leap to destruc- tion as leaps the crocodile." The author of the poem foes on to .state that after this great slaughter of the Hittites by IMiaraoh and his body- guard, the Egyptian brigades cante up towards evening to the field of conllict, ''and are rilled with wonder as they wade through THE BLOOD OB' THE SLAIN, and behold the field strewn with dead and dying. 'J'hey exalt the powers of the king, who overwhelms them with reproaches." It is also stated that '' the next day at sunrise Rameses assembles his forces, and achieves a signal victory, followed by the submission of the Prince of Kheta, and the conclusion of a treaty of peace," and that " this treaty was shortly confirmed by the marriage of Rameses with a Khetan Princess ; and the friendship thus cemented continued un- broken throughout the rest of his long reign." This remarkable poem is profusel illustrated by hiero- glyphics on II 34 Marvellous Discoveries in Hiblc Lands. THE GREAT TABLET OP ABU-SIMBEL, showing every phase ol" the renowned brittle of Kadesh, between the Egyptians and Hittites. Below will be seen a fac-siinile of the opening lines of the poem, which has been co|)ied from the original Hierctic pajtyriis in the British Mtiseum. The British Museum docimient con- tains one hundred and twelve lines of very fine hieretic writui.;, and the last page ends with a formal statement that it was '♦written in the year VII., the month Payni, in the reign of king Rameses Mer-Amen, Giver of Life eternal like unto Ra, his father, for the chief librarian of the royal archives ... by the Royal Scribe Pentaur "' TUK FIRST t.INES OF THE El'IC OF PeNTAUK. * It is obvious that Rameses had this poem published in " a most costly manner, with magnificent illustrations. And he did so upon a scale which puts our modern publishing houses to shame. His imperial edition was issued on sculpiureJ stone, and illustrated with bas-relief subjects gor- geously colored by hand. Four more or less perfect copies I < ' I I AIar7>elloiis Discoveries in IVihlc Lands, 3' HITTITE WAR CHARIOTS. The record of this engagement reads thus . " Then llie vile Prince of Kheta sent forth his bowmen and his horse- men and his chariots, and they were as many as the grains of sand on the sea-shore. Three men were they on each chariot, and with tJiem were the bravest of the fighting men of the KhtHa, well armed with all weapons for the combat. They marched out on tlie side of the south of Kadesh, and they charged the l)rigade of K.a ; and foot and horse of king Rameses gave way before them. Then came messengers to his majesty with tidings of defeat. .And the king arose, and grasped his weapons and donned his armour, hke unto Baal the war-god, in his horn- of wrath. And the great horses of his Majesty came forth from their stables, and he [tut them to their s|)eed, and he rushed tipon the ranks of the Kheta. Alone he went — none other beside him. yVnd lo 1 he was surrounded by two thousand five hundred chariots ; his retreat cut off by the fighting men of Aradus, of Mysia, of Aleppo, of Caria, of Kadesh, and of Lycea. They were three on each chariot, and massed in one solid pbalanK." Here the fonn of the poera changes, and Pharaoh, in his frenzy, breaks forth in an impassioned ajjpeal to his god Amen ; " None of my princes are with me," he cries, "not one of my generals — not one of my captains of bowmen or chariots. My soldiers have abandoned me — my horsemen have tied — there are none to combat beside me ! Where art thou, Oh Amen, my father? Hath the f.ither forgotten the son? Behold ! have I done aught without thee? Mavc I not walked in thy ways, and waited on thy words ? Have I not built thee temples of enduring stone? Have I not dedicated to thee sacrifices of tens of thousands of oxen, and of every rare and sweet-.scented wood ? Have I not given I i t .^. 5:? Marvel forts Discoveries in Dihlc Lernds: ihcT ihe wliolt.- world in tribute? I call ii|H)n iIut, Oh Amerr, my father ! I invoke Ihee ' Hehold, \ am alone, imd all tht' nations of the tarih are leagued against rne ' My foot- soldiers and my cnariolinen have abandoned me! I cull, and nont hear my voice' But Ai»en is more than MILLIONS OP ARCHERS, more than hundreds of thousands of r;jvalry ! The rnighl of men is as nothing. Amen is greater than all !" On the conclusion of this |)t'tiiion to the ffod in whom he trusted for aid, Rximeses becomes assured thai Amen ha.'» heard the cry of his distress, and will lead him to victory, goes or to exclaim : " l,o my voice hath resounded as far as Hermonthis ' Amcin comes to my call. Me gives me his hand. 1 shout aloud for joy, hearing his voice behind me!" At this juncture, Arnen is caused to reply: "Oh, Rameses, 1 am here f [t is F, thy father f My hand i^ with thee, and I aro more to thee than hundreds of thous- ands. I am the Lord of Might, who loves valor, I know thy dauntless heart, and I am content with thee. Now, lie my vvill accomjilished" Inspired by this lanciful assurance of his god. wt ^re told that Romese.s bends his terrible bow and rushes with his body guard upon the enemy. His appeal ti.' Ji'i deity for aid is changed to a triumphal shout, in which he is repre- sented as saying : •' Like Mentha, I let fly ray arrows to right and left, and mine enemies go down ! f am as Baat in his wrath ! The two hiu)dred thousand live hundred chariots which encompass me are dashed to pieces under ^i ! Marvellous /discoveries in Hi'^lc Lauds. 35 I of this edition have survived the wreck of ages, and sve know not how many have perished. These four are carved on the pylon walls of the it. it Temple of Luxor and the Ramesseum at Thebes, on a wall of the Great renii)le of Abydos, and in the main hall of the great rock-cut Temple of Abi-Simbel in Nubia. One of the tableaux in this hall is fifty feet in length by forty feet in height, and it contains many thousands of figures. A fifth copy is also graven with- out illustrations on the side-wall of the Great Temple of Karnak ; and some remains of a great battle-scene, with de- faced inset iptions, appear to belong to another copy, on one of the walls of the Tem[)]e of Derr, in Nubia, in these temple-copies the poem is sculptured in hieroglyphics." Besides these sculptured editions of this imuiortal poem which is called "THE EGYPTIAN ILIAD," there were evidently popular editions of it issued which were written on Papyrus rolls by professional scribes. The coi)y which has been referred *:o as being in the Britis'j Musiiem is one of these editions. *' A fragment of the same copy may also be seen in the Museum of Louvre." Although this epic, which is without doubt the most cele- brated masterpiece of Egyptian literature, may have been composed inerely to gratify the vanity of Rameses, yet it is now o^ great historic value, revealing to us, as it does, the resurrection of a people so powerful, and with dominion so widely extended as that of the Hittites, whose existence is '.■nerely mentioned in Scripture story ; and «''^o had no pop- ular history to transmit to the world, save that of meagre records engraved on monumental tablets which have defied the corroding tooth of time, and which have lately been r flBR-' 36 Marvellous Discoveries in Bible Lands. discovered in various districts where their power doubtless once extended. When the inscriptions now obtained re- garding this peoi)lc have all been deciphered, we may expect valuable 1 •,\ REVELATIONS OP THE FAR DISTANT PAST, in which the Hittites played their part. " The ramifications of their influence in religion and art had its influence upon ancient Greek art, as seen in the pottery of Cyprus and the Trojan plain." It is also pretty certain that this people formed a different nation from that of the Hittites whose dominion was limited to a portion of Canaan. Some writers state that the Hittites who dwelt in Canaan were an offshoot of a larger race known by the same name ) but in face of the information now before us, this idea is untenable. It is evident from the Bible record, that the Hittites and Amorites, who dwelt in Canaan, were of the same family, and consequently resembled each other in ap- pearance; whilst the Egyjjtian monuments leach us that the Hittites of the North were of very different origin and char- acter from the Amorites represented on the Egyptian tablets, the Northern Hittites are painted as being thick set and short of limb, " w people with dark black hair, yellow skins and Mongoli?n features, receding foreheads, oblique eyes and protruding upper jaws." C)n their own monuments, discovered in Asia Minor and elsewhere, the description given by themselves harmonize to the letter with that of Egyi^t. On the contrary, the Amorites are represented as being a tall and handsome people, with white skins, blue eyes and reddish hair, and having all the characteristics of the white race. The ii' s. Marvellous Discoveries in Bible Lands. I'j ORIGIN OF THE CANAANITISH HITTITES dates back to a short period after the deluge, their progeni- tor being Heth, one of the sons of Canaan, of the flimily of Ham. At first they were called " the children of Heth," and afterwards known as the " Hittites." The first men- tion we have of them in Scri[)ture is in connection with God's promise to Abraham at Mamre, in which case they are enumerated as one of the nations inhabiting the land which the Lord gave in covenant to the seed of that Patriarch. We are again told that at the time of Sarah's death Abraham purchased the field of Machpebdi, with its cave, as a family sepulchre in which to bury his dead, from one of the Hittites who had pdfesession of the place. At that time these Hittites, with whom Abraham came in contact, evidently occupied the southern part of Canaan. It is rec- orded that Esau married Hittite wives at Beersheba, and Isaac and Rebekah fe?red that Jacob might follow his ex- ample and sent him to Padan Arm to procure a wife of his own kindred, thus leading us to infer that they were their near neighbors. From reference by Ezekiel (xvi. 3, 45) as to the nativity of Jerusalem, it is not too much to hazard the opinion that that city was founded by the Hittite and Amorite branches of the Canaaniti?h family — " Thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an. Hittite." Six centuries after Abraham's day, when the spies visited Canaan, the Hittites were dwelling in the mountains with the Jebusites and Amorites, the Amalekites having then possession of the South ; and forty years later, when Israel entered the Promised 'Land, they were found occupying the ,1 38 Marvellous Discoveries in Bible Lands. ! 1 t, same position, and resisted Joshua with the other inhabi- tants of the country. After the death of Joshua it is beyond doubt that a rem- nant of the same Hittite race still remained ia the land of Palestine, for in subsequent times we find two of David's warriors, Flittites, Uriah and Ahimelech ; and it is also rec- orded that Solomon levied a tribute of bond-service upon all the posterity of the Amorites, Hittites, Perezzites, Hivites and Jebusites that were left m the land, whom the children of Israel were not able to destroy (i King ix. 20, 21). A careful tracing of the various generations of the Hittites who dwelt in Canaan will make it clear that this people formed one of the doomed nations of that land under Israel, and could not have been the powerful nation with whom Pharaoh came into contact. If we take it for granted that they were one and the same people, we must believe that Solomon allowed Hittite kings to reign among the people whom he subjected to " bond-service," and also supplied their kings with horses and chariots of Egyptian importa- tion, and married some of their daughters as wives, (i Kings X. 28, 29; xi. I ). Such an idea is absurd ; neither is it reason- able to suppose that the Hittites, who dwelt in the mountains of the Hill Country of Judea, or Southern Canaan, at the time of the Exodus, were the people who engaged in deadly con- flict with Rameses the Great at the famous battle of Kadesh. As Moses was educated at the court of the Egyptian king, woo was father of the Pharaoh of the great oppression, the battle referred to must have been fought a short time pre- vious to the Israelites' departure from Goshen. These things considered it may fairly be ass'mied that the Hiltitish nation of the North was one of the great empires of antiquity. As to the final overthrow of this nation, it can be gathered i ^fjSgjMg^E^ Marvellous Discoveries in Bible Lands. 39 from Assyrian annals that "the Hittite merchants of Car- chemish were famous, but when Carchomish fell before the army of Sargon, father of Sennacherib, in the year 717 B. C, their power was broken forever," Secular history informs U5 that about one hundred years previous to that t!me Shalmaneser II., conducted three cam[)aigns against Damascus, which kingdom was aided by the forces of Israel, Hamaih, the Hittires, and the Phcenic- ians, all of whom were alarmed at the growing power of Assyria, another proof of the existence of such a nation. A glance at the circumstances connected with the over- throw of the Hiitites will give us s' me idea of their greatness. At that time Carchemish, their Capital, was one of the most important cities of the East, commanding the passage of the Euphrates from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean, thg possession of which was therefore of great moment to the neighbouring powers, and held by the Hitlites, who were only expelled by one of the mightiest hosts that Assyria was ever able to muster. * "^ ANCIENT TABLETS DISCOVERED IN 1888 by the Arabs at Tel el-Amarna, in Upper Egypt, one hun-_ dred miles south of Cairo, tell of a people })ressing from the North, southwards, and making it hard for the Egyptian officials to hold their own in Canaan, and that peo[)Ie was doubtless the Hittites. In these tablets the governors of garrisons in the north, hard pressed by an enemy who is too powerful for them, write to their liege lord in Egypt for immediate assistance. These Tel el-Amarna Tablets number over 300. and are preserved in the British Museum, in the Museum of Antiq- fflnlS^'' 40 Marvellous Discoveries in Bible Lands. % :ii i I 1 uities in Berlin, and in the Boulac Museum at Cairo, "^rhey are of great value to the Bible student as well as to the historian, as they fill u[j a blank in the Scripture history of Palestine from the time of Jacob's family going down into Egypt — to the conquest of Canaan by their returning de- cendants under Joshua — a period estimated by some authorities of nearly 500 years. During all that time we learn nothing from Scripture of the nations who inhaliited the land, further than a statement that when Abraham dwelt in the land of piomise the Amorite, Hittite, Jebusite, and other tribes of the family of Canaan, were in possession ; and on the return of Israel from Egy|)t the same tribes were still acknowledged as possessors of the same. But " the Tel el-Amarna Tablets give information as to the political condition of Canaan in the Fifteenth century, and they also furnish remarkable corroboration in important particulars of Scripture history." They inform us that *' Palestine was then subject to Egypt, and garrisoned by Egyptian troops," similar to that of India under British rule at the present time. In these tablets THE ANALOGY OP MELCHIZEDBK is maintained by what is recorded of the meaning and an- tiquity of the word " Jerusalem." It is evident, from these tablet inscriptions, " that Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of theimost : High God, who is taken as a type of Christ in his united kingly and priestly offices, was not the solitary occupant of that dignity, but one in a succession of priest-kings which continued to the times before the con- quest. And that Abraham should have received Melchize- dek's blessing was only the due acki'Owlcdgment of the God of peace to One who i\ad delivered Palestine from the in- ^! Alarz'vlhms Discm^crics in Bible Lands. 41 vader aivl given peace to the land." In reference to this great Personage Professor Sayce says ; '* Two or three years ago it would have seemed a dream of the wildest en- thusiasm to suggest that light would !)e thrown by modern discovery on the histor)' of Mekhi/.edek. Whatever linger jng scruples the critic might have felt about rejecting the historical character of the first half of the fourteenth chapter of (ienesis, hi' felt none at all as to the second half of it. Melchizedek, ' king of Salem' and ' priest of the most high God,' appeared to be altogether a creation of mythology. And yet among the surprises which the tablets 01 Tel el- Amarna had in store for us was the discovery th;;t after all Melchizedek might well have been a historical personage. Among the correspondents of the Egyptian Pharaoh is a certain Ebed-tob, THE VASSAL-KING OF JERUSALEM. Jerusalem was already an im; >rtant city, with a territory which extended to Carmel in the South, and to (rath and Keilah in the West, it was threatened at the lime by the Khabiri, or 'CK^n federates,' coafederalcd tribes, it may be, who had their centre at Hebron, and the letters of Ebed-tob are largely occupied with appeals for help against them, *' Ebed-tob held a position which, as he tells us, was unlike tiiat of any other Kgy|)tian Crovernor in Canaan. He had been appointed, or confirmed in his post, not by the Pharaoh, hut by the oracle and i)ower of ' the great King,' the god, that i.. 10 say, whose sanctuary stood on the summit of Moriah. It was not from his 'father or from his mother' that he had inherited his dignity ; he was King of Jerusalem because he was tlie priest of its god. '' In ;!ll thi.s we have an explanation of the language used m 42 Marvellous D r scorer ics in Bible Lands. ■ ■ in reference to Melchizcdek. Melchizedek, loo, was • with- out father, without irwiher/ and, like F.bed-tol), he wiis at once priest and king. It was in viitue of hl.s priesthood that Abram the Hebrew f)3rd tfthcs to biin after the defeat of the foreign invader. Up to the »:lof?>ing days of the Eighteenth Egyptian dynasty, if not later, Jerusalem was governed by a royal priest, "There is a reason, loo. why Melchi/X'dek should be termed ' King of Satem' r.ither thun King of Jerusalem. In the Cuneiforn> inscri|'tioP' the -ame of Jerusalem \% written Uru-'Salfm, and a lex.cai tao-jet explains Uru as the eriuiv- alent of the Assyrian Alu^ 'city,' 'Siilim wa» the god Df ' peace,' and we may accv)' ''ng.> itt in Jerusalem ' the city of the god of peace.' The fact is plainly stated in one of the letters of Kbed-tob, now preserved at BtTlin, if ihe read- ing of a fHjnnewhat obliterated Cuneiform character by Dr, Wiixkler and myself is correct." The same authority also states tJ>at '^some of these tablets contain letters from the Governor of Jerusalem, to the Egyp- tian king, who signs himnelf Abid-thuba, and are of special interest. Both the Arnoriles ai^d Hittites, wlio dwelt in Canaan, are mentioned in these letters as mingling together as one racre in tl>e land." A large number of these Tel el-Aiirarna tablets are as yet nndeciphered, and will, no doubt, in due time yield up their secrets. Meanwhile som»e of the tablets which have been deciphered show the vastness of the l^^yptian Ejnpire ; they also " .show the wide-spread ]^revalence of the Assyrian lan- guage in the WesV and the antif[ui«y ot the art of writing :, they give interesting indications of the character of the pre- llebraic, the Canaianitish language of Palestine, from which it seems clear that the language f>f Canaan w.>s essentially Marvellous Discoveries in Bible Lands, 43 identical with tlic Hebrew ; and they offer materials whicii, when sifted and classified, will determine more clearly the religi(»n of the Canaanites at that time." Many of the tab- lets consist " of letters and desjiatches addressed by kings and governors of Babylonia and Assyria, Mesopotamia and Cappadocia, Syria and Palestine, to the Pharaohs Amenophis III., and Amenophis IV., towards the close of the Eighteenth dynasty, at a time when Palestine was a province of the F, gy p I i an \\ m p i re . " Previous to the discovery of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, the finding of the body of Rame.ses II.. THE SECOND PHARAOH OF THE GREAT OPPRESSION, whose cruel tr^'atment of the Israelites is so graphicjUy re- lated in the book of Exodus, is one of the most important discoveries made in corroboration of Bible truth. After lying in state over three thousand years, incased in a huge sarco[)hagus, deposited in a rock -cut cavern of the earth, far beneath its surface, near Thebes, the spi.de of the antiquarian broke into the dark resting place, and on the fifth of July, 1881, the body of this renowned monarch was discovered, with thirty-five other mummies of Egyptian kings, queens, ]jrinces, and high priests, thus bringing the mortal remains of "the old tyrant" to light, that his ])hysiog- nomy might confirm the Sacred record of his awfiii cruelty to God's aicient peoj.ile so many centuries ago. As to the identification of this mummified body of king Pharaoh, who was known as '• Rameses the (ireai,'' the Scsostrii'ji of Cireek history, whose son Menej)tah 1. was the Pharaoh of the l*",xodus, there is no doubt, as papri inscrip- tions written in black ink, jireserved with the body, and 44 Marvellous Discoveries in Bible L ait Is. \ ,' M S4i ^4 M \ "m uiiirkings on tlu; nuiuiiuy case, Hignt^d by the high pviest and king Pinelum. bear witness to the gcmiiiK*ness of the content* of the royal casket. lUil -kpai i frony thefie inscTii)tiun records, the fea- tures ot the jiuininiy reveal, in tliar- acters overwhelmingly convincin,c,% that the living man was well qualit'ied to eause the ffebrews to groan under their Iwndage, which was doubtless increased by his sou and successor, imlil (Vod heard their cry and delivered theni by executing fearful destruction upon their tnemies, '• that nian, who liad but sprung of earth, might them oj)press u-i niore," The following descrijition of the nnnnmy will give the reader some idea of what the character of the living per- son might have been. It will be seen by the portrait of the miutimy on this |iage that ihe body is one of extreme length in proportion to its thicknes. measuring 6 feet 3 inches in height. The i)rofile and front view of the face which were taken when the l>ody was unswathed are pediaps the best index to the character of the living king. These will be seen on pages 46 and 49. ft will be seen that he forehead i.s lo'.\' and narrow, the eyes small aiJtd close together, the temples sunken,, cheek-bones prominent, jaw* fl m Full length view of mummy of King Phiraoh, known as- Kanieses II. di IIIIIMIW I Marvillous Discoverivs in Uihle Lands. 45 bone massive and stronj^, month small and teeth exposed ; the nose long, thin, arched and slightly bent at the tip ; the expression is un intellectual, resolute and arrogant ; the top of the head is bald, with a profusion of hair at the pole, and on the eyebrows, which appear like dandelion down. A few sparse hairs remain on the rcuii>les. At the time of death the hair was evidently white, but the spices used in embalming the body have dyed it a light yellow. The beard was also white and thin, and appears as if it had been shaven during life, but allowed to grow tbr a short tiine before death ; or, it might have been possible that it sprouted for a period after the body had been committed to die tomb; ihe ears are lound, standing far out fromlhe headland have Ixen pierced as if for the wearing of rings. The corpse is apparently that of a robust old man who died in the enjoyment of life and vigor. Although shrunken and withered as it stands incased in ITS ROYAL GILDED CASKET, yet every indication of the features of this mummy " toll of the warrior and the tyrant." Lying' thus as it were in state in the Boulac Museum, with visage grin-i and determined even in death, exposed to the gaze of every curiosity-.seeker visiting the place, he is hated and despised by Jew and Gendle, Pagan and Christian alike as -'a dishonored and vile persecutor and oppressor.'' His long, hooked, Roman nose, retreating forehead, deep-sunk«n eyeballs, heavy square jaw, long scrawny neck, and ear by brown complexion, variegated with black speckles, are now indignantly criticised with impunity by the progeny of those whose ancestors once revered the despot as a god of surpassing might and ma- jesty. Such, alas I, is the end of human greatness when left ■«■■■■■■ 46 uMarvt'llous Discoveries i/i Bible Lands. I" : 1' Front view of Ramest.s II. from a photograph taken immediatePy after unwinding tlic mummy. to its own misguidance. How appropriate in this case is the language of inspiration : " Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is hice the beasts that perish." Well may it Ixi said ■' What wondrous faith in the doctrine of immortality this great king evinced, not only by securing, as he thought, the careful preservation of his body, but by a lavish supply of sculpture on a colossal scale ! So far as known, no other king ever made such ostentatious * ) •■ ; mmmm Marveilous Disanyries in Bible Lands, 47 sliow of his ambition. Of no king so much remains of craftsman's skill, of artist's labor, and of ])oet's lore, to per- petuate his name and fame." And now the tomb has given up its dead Pharaoh, and his mummy stands surrounded by some of the very works whose lustrous polish and exact en- graving he caused to be done with so much care. lUit these shall pass away in time, like a tale that is told, and the place that nc -v knows them shall know them no more forever. THE RBIQN OF THIS QREAT MONARCH extended over sixty-six years, and marked a very important epoch in the annals of Egyptian history. According to ac- cepted authority, through internal troubles in the nation, the Eighteenth dynasty came to an end in the year 1324 B. C. ; and in the same year the Nineteenth dynasty was formed by Rameses I., whose reign of otfice was less than two years, when he was succeeded by his son Sethi I., who was the real founder of the Nineteenth dynasty, and, according to the opinion of many, the Pharaoh who ''arose up a new ki.ig over Egypt, which knew not Joseph," and inaugurated the oppression against the Israelites. This king was known as *' a great and warlike monarch, who conquered Syria, which had revolted after the death of Amunoph III., and carried his victorious arms to the borders of Cilicia and the Euph- rates. He built the great hall of Karnak, and constructed for himself the most beautiful of the royal tombs. For .; number of years his son Rameses II. called the Great, vvuj associated with him in the government, and after the death of Sethi he became sole king and ruler of P^gypt, continuing the great oppression to which his father had subjected Israel. After the death of Kameses the Great, 1281 years mIiii \% >> \l^ 48 Marvellous Disan'cries in Bible Lands. 1 ' ,■ 1 i ' \ m B. C'., ))is son and successor. Mcneptah I., who war, the fourteenth of his sixty sons, conliniied the cruel l)oiu]age and bitter toil by which the children of Israel were made to groan under the lash of their relentless taskmasters, until "God heard their groanings, and reu^cmbered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacol)," and led tiiem forth out of their house of bondage. This MeneiMali was the " Pharaoh of the Exodus," and his father Rameses and grandfather vSethi I., were known as the " Pharaohs of the Oppression." liy turning to the early chapters of Plxodus we learn " the tragic history that followed, the groanings, the oppression, the plague, the deliverence, the passage of the Red Sea, the overwhelming of Pharaoh and his chariots in the waves." As to the leading cause of the great oppression of the Israelites by Sethi and Rameses, it may be said that the times were critical. The new dynasty had come in upon a revolu- tion, and it had to secure itself in permanence. There were enemies on the north-eastern frontier, and, as far as Egyi)t, held possession, pressing hard upon her representatives ; the Khita, or Hittites, were gathering and growing bold enough to threaten invasion, Sethi discovered in the Israel- ites within his borders a source of real danger should these Canaanitish nations invade the land, and so he said, "Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and get them up out of the land." (Exod. i. ']^\6). It was in this condition of thiiigs that Sethi I. died, and Rameses II. became sole ruler^ continuing the oppressive scheme in relation to Israel which his father had introduced^ Sq far as can be gathered fron'i historical' records Moses Marvilluus Discoveries in IribU Lands, 49 was born, anrl grew ui> as ♦' the son of Pharaoh's daujihter," Thonnuthis-Neferari, by whom his life was savetl in infancy, as recorded in the Scn'i tares, ft is also recorded that Moses received his education at the '^'oiirt of Rame.ses 11,, I Profile of Kiny Pharaoh, Rainews II. as it no\s' ap{)ears .in the BouKt^ Museum. and being <' mighty in words and in deeds,'' as Steplien as- serts (Acts vii, 22), was appointed General of the Egyptian host to fight against the Ethiopians, v.'hom he conquered, aiul before returning with his men to Egypt, married PrincesF Tharbis, daughter of the king ot* Ethopia, who fell in love with him because of the bravery he manifested in leading the Egyptian army against the royal city of Seba or Sheba, where she resided. Whether \st accept or reject this record in «a«ian 50 Marvellous Discoveries in Bible Lands, reference to the marriage of Moses, it is evidently clear from Bible narrative that Moses " had married an Ethiopian woman " at some period, besides Zipporah, the daughter of Jelhro, priest of Midlan, at which Miriam and Aaron pub- licly expressed their indignation (Ninibers xii. 1). It is a remarkable attestation to the record of Sacred Story in reference to - i, THE BONDAG-E OF ISRAEL IN EGYPT, that the mummies of Sethi !., and his son Rameses II., two of the Pharaohs of the opj)ression, have been discovered, and now stand side by side in the Museum at Cairo, and that no ingenuity of man has been able to find my trace of the Pharaoh (Meneptha II.,) the fourth king of the nineteenth dynasty, whom the Scripture emphatically declares, was *< overthrown with his host in the Red Sea. (Ps. cxxxvi. 15). As this Pharaoh was doubtless one of those who " sank as lead in the mighty waters." and his body having, probably, been devoured by sharks, it is vain to hope that his mortal remains shall ever be discovered to be exposed as a curiosity among the royal mummies of Egypt. Those who attempt proving that the Pharaoh of the Exodus was not submerged in the common deluge of the Egyptian host m the Red Sea will find it a difficult matter, in face of the evidence adduced by Scripture aid modern reseach. The Bible narrative recorded in the fourteenth chapter of Exodus, and r^jference to the fact in the huiidred and thirty-sixth Psaun, to the writer's mind, leave no room to doubt that the king of Egypt found a watery grave. With the exception of the bod) of this Pharaoh, the mummies of the greater mmiber f the Egyptian rulers during the Eigiiteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, and Twonty- t be otherwise than effected and God's Word l)e true. Its fate in all the details had l>een declared iii the most public and emphatic manner by the Hebrew pro{)Jiets, while the city was in the enjoyment of life and prosix:rity, as wilJ be seen hy a com- iJarison of these declarations with the actual facts of historv, Isaiaii, who lived " in the days of Uj'ziah, Jorham, Ahaz, and Hezekiaii, kings of Judah," (Isa. i. i.), a huridred years at least befot>e tJie ?vIedo- Persian invasion of JUhylon, \)\o phesied thus cx^ncernii^^^ it ; " Tlic burden of BiUivloK, whfch Isaiah the sou of Amos did see. Behold, the day of the Lord comeilh, both with wrath and ficnce anger, to lay the Land desolate ; and he ■ma L 122 Marvellous Discoveries in Bible Lands, rhall dcftUoy the sinners thereof out of it. Behold, I will stir up thf Medes against them, which shall not regard ;iil • ver ; and as for gold, they shsril no! delight in iit. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces > and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb ; their eyen shall not spare ebildren, And I'abylon, the glory of kingdoms., the beauty of the Chaidee's excellency, shall \>ii as when God overthrew Sodom and (iomorrah. It ^hall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation tc» generation ;. neithei" &h»ll the. Arabian pitch his tent there ; neither shall the shepherds n'uke their folds there \ but the wild beasts of the desert shall lie there and their houses shall be fall of doleful creatures ; and owls shall dwell there^ and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild l>easts of the islands shall cry in their desolate hooses, and dragons irv their pleasant places; and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolojig.ed. Thus saith the Lord tc» his anointed, to Cyrus, whose r> ^>t hand I have Iwlden to subdue nations before him ;. and I will Vm%t the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates, and the gates shall n(f^t be shut." ^Isa. Tiiii. i. 9, 17-22 ;, xlv. 1)^ This last reference is to the " two-leaved gates" of Babylon^ which ^'eve left open by some means not revealed to us^ during the night of Bslshaz/.ar's great revelry, when I)ariu& entered the city. JEREMIAH'S PBEDIOTIONS REGARDING BABYLON^ . y-.\ -z also written in the days of Ntbuchadnez/a'-, be- .: • • '^ ".':■' ivuetion of the doomed city, read thus • -'It shall cuinc i-> j^mSs, when .seventy years are accomplished, that \ will punish the king ©f Baljylon. and that natio >, saith the MarvcHojis Discoveries in Bible Lands. 123 Lord, for ilicir iniquity, and the land of t!ie Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. Prepare against her the nations \»*ih the kings of the Medes, the Captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion. And the iand shall tremble and sorrow ; for every purpose of the Lord sha!" be performed against Babylon to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant. (.)ne post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of r.nbylon that his city is taken :it one end. vVnd Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment and an hissing, without an inhabitant. Yea the wall of Babylon shall fall. Baby- lon hath caused tiie slain of all the country. I will do judg- ment upon the graven iinages. Though Ikibylon should mount up to heaven, and tho\igh she should fortify the height of h;r strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord ; for the Lord God of re<:ompenses shall surely requite. And I will make drunken her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men ; and they shall .sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake, saith the King, who.se name is the Lord of hosts. Lhus saith the Lord of hosts : The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gales shall be burnt witii fire, and the people shall labcmr in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary." (Jer. \\v. iz;]\. 28,31, .37. 44, 49. 5^' 55> 54, 5<'^ 57> S^)- All this ruin u:ll upon liabylon, as it had l>een foretold by Isaiah and j'^remiah. After its capture by the Medo- Persians it steadily declined. Cttising to be the seat of government it took rank among the tributary towns. In order that its strength might be weakened in view of possible in- surrection its walls were lowered. According to historical 124 Marveilims Discoveries in Btbk Lands. record the object of its rulers, with the exception of Cyrns and Alexander, seem to have been to render it incapable of successful resistance. Ader the eomjuest by Greece, Alex- ander's ambitious purpose was to restore il to its ancienK grandeur, and to make it THE CAPITAL OP A UNIVERSAL EMPIRE, after he had toncjiiered the world. But alas, for human ambition when left to its own misguidance I 'I'he mighty *' lie-goat,'' or "king of Grecia," seen two hundred year* before in Daniel's vision, who was to trample in the dust " the ram" of the Medo-Persian PLmpiie, with its " hun- dred and twenty-seven provinces, extending from India to Ethiopa," was under control of Jehovali, who is Supreme Governor anwng the natioins > and having subjugated Persia his work was done, and he died at Babylon, in the horrors of intemperance, at the age of thirty-three, and his great empire was shattered to pieces, so that his plans for the gaining of universal dominion were all defeated. .\fter the death of Alexander a variety of causes, too numerous to mention here, contributed to the downfall of Babylon, '* Ravaged and spoiled for ages, and oppressed in turn by the Persians, the Greek, the Parthian, the Roman, the Saracen and the Turk, the golden city has long since ceased to exist, and nothing remains of it to-day but vast and imsightly heaps of ruins," the outlines cf which will be seen by glancing at the picture of its site on page 113. So completely was its magnificence swept oft l>y the besom of destruction that the very site of it was for long a perplexing mystery. But modern investigations have now solved the mystery by the undoubted d; ':overy of what once was Baby- lon, and satisfactorily show us how the threatened doom was executed. Marvellous Discoveries in Bible Lands. 125 % Viewing these ruins as they appear to-day, and consider- ing what the place once was, well might the (juestion be asked, '* Is there any spot on earth which has undergone a more complete transformation ?" " 'I'he records of the hu- man race do not present a contrast more striking than that between the primeval magnificence of Babylon and its long desolation. Its luins have been carefully and scrupulously examined by men of unimpeached veracity, and the result of every research is a more striking demonstration of the literal accom|>lishment of every prediction of God's prophets. Could any prophecies respecting a single place have been more precise, or wonderful, or numerous, or true, or more grandly accomplisiied throughout many generations? And when we look at what Babylon was, and what it is, ans] per- ceive the minute reali/aiion of them all, may not nations learn, rnay not tyrants tremble, and may not sceptics think ?" The site of Babylon is now indeed a desolate scene. I'he whole region is a wild, arid and dismal desert, untrodden by the foot of man. " It is spurned alike by the heel of the Ottoman, the Israelite, and the son of Lshmael." No in- ducement could persuade the roaming Arab to ])itch his tent amid its ruins for a night, believing them to be the abodes of evil spirits : The king of the forest ranges over it at his pleasure. Hyenas, jackalls and other ferocious beasts and noxious creatures find it a resort adapted to their nature. And, above all, the screech-owl's nightly moan amid its shattered ruins proclaims, in language not to be mistaken, that " The Lord is the true God, he is the living (iod, and an everlasting King ; at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation." (Jer. X. 10). In addition to this, how appropriate are the words of Isaiah (xl. 8) ; "The grass withereth, the flower I /% 126 Marvellous Discoveries in Bible Lauds. fadcth, but the Word of our God shall stand for ever !" The deserved judgments of God, which have been poured out upon Babylon, have also been inflicted upon HER GREAT OOMPEBR. NINEVEH, the grand Metropolis of the Assyrian Empire, which said in her heart, " I am and there is none besides me," has long since sunk "unto the nether parts of the earth," as recorded amonf, the visions of f'/ekiel (xxxi. lo 17), (which the reader can refer to at jjleasure), save a few of its strong- hold " funeral j)iles," which remain in various sections of a wide pasturage, as silent witnesses to the Bible record that '< Nineveh was an exceeding great city," in which there was " much cattle," besides its vast hum.in population. As to the site of this city, it stood upon the easiern side of the river Tigris, some 400 miles north of Babylon, and is given by some authorities us equal in extent to that of Baby- lon. Its form was of a rectangular parallelogram. It was en compassed by walls of 100 feet high, and so broad that three chariots could drive abreast upon their top. These walls were strengthened by 150c towers, each of 200 feet in height. Of the early history of Nine"eh coniparatively little is known by secular historical records ; but it is evident that its rise to greatness was steadily increasing from the time of its founding by Ninirod until it had reached the zenith of its power under A.ssur-bani-pal, After the rival kingdoms of Israel and Judah had been established, its sovereigns are set forth in Sacred history as the leaders of mighty armies, and controlling widely extended erntories. Among its chief rulers were Shalmeneser, Taglath-Pileser, Asshur-bil- kela, Sargon, Sennacherib and Assur-bani-pal. This great power was evidently permitted to increase • ' i i ■: • / Marvellous Discoveries in Bible Lands. 127 wiglitily by the overruling Providcncf of God for the pur- post of uprooting the kingdom of Israel for the idolatry of its people. Soon after the removal of Israel by this power, the work for which it was intended to execute having been accomplished, an overwhelming and irreparable ruin over- took this wicked, treacherous, cruel, idolatrous and arrogant city. The work of ruin was begun by the capture of tho city by tlie Babylonians and the Medes, who sacked it and gave it up to pillage, sword and fire. The destruction was comj)lete. the walls were razed to the foundations, and car- ried away to build cities elsewhere. After this a cloud of da.kness closed over the fortunes of Nineveh, and the site of the renowned city became a matter of doubt as to where the location was, until an accidentfil discovery made by Dr, Layard, and M. Eotta, French Consul at Mosul, in 1845, by the unearthing of an enormous idol figure and some sculptured slabs of gypsum, which led to luriher explorations; and in a short time the discovery of numerous inscribed tablets, similar to that illustrated on page rr;, and many ancient Assyrian sculptures, and other marvellous disinter- ment of the long-lost memorials of the renowned city, came to light, so that ^hi site of the '-great city Nineveh" was no longer a matter of doubt. Dr. Layard stales in reference to the discoveries made by himself and M. Botta at Nineveh ; " It is more than curious ; it is the wise Providence of Him who unc;>vereth secret things that, in our busy, speculative, superficial age, when men are questioning the truths of his revelation, and, wist in their own conceit, denying his moral government of the worlds he has framed, the earth should, as it were, give forth a voice, reveal the buried ]jalaces of ancient days, and proclaim thereby a fre.sh attestation to the truths of Sacred Writ." 128 Marvellous Discin't'ries iti JUble Lauds, THE STRONG CITY OF TYRE, with its impregnable battlements of rtnown, has long since disappeared forever, us foretold it should by the prophet Ezekicl, two hundred years before its destruction: •* Thus saith the Lord God. Ik-hold, 1 am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up aguinst thee, as the sea causeth his vva\es to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers : ] will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It sliall be a place tor the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea. I'hey shtill lay thy stones, and thy tim- ber, and thy dust in the midst of the water. 1 will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more : though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found agaiu, Mth the Lord God." Ezek. xxvi. 3, .4, 12, 14, 21). These predictions have all been literally fulfilled. Not a vestige of the "Queen City" is visible but a few huge sea-beaten fragments of the old wall, and jiiles of granite and marble columns scattered along the shores of the peninsula, wnich are now|usedby fishermen as rocks on which to dry their nets. An attempt has been made to erect a modern Tyre in the vicinity of the old one, but it has proved a miserable failure. As Tyre now is, and has long been, she is God's witness that His Word is true, and shall endure forever. Were that which is now called " Modern Tyre" *• powerful and popul- ous she would be the infidel's boast. This, however, she cannot be. 'I\re will never rise from her dust to falsify the voice of prophecy. The very veracity of Jei^^vah stands pledged, or seems to be, to keep it so.'" We might refer to the discovery of the it-mains of Caper- naum, Jericho, vSamaria, and other cities of Palestine, which have come to nought, in accordance with Divine prediction; but what need of further witnesses than those set forth in the foregoing pages, to substantiate the genuineness of Sacred Story ? And, if a perusal of these pages will lead to a more diligent search and study of the Holy Scriptures, and strengthen the faith of the weak believer, and remove the doubt of the sceptic, the writer shall be amply repaid for the many hours he hi^s laboured in their preparation. 1