times make their Jnirs in the ruins (Rich, defended by many, who think Isaiah migM • First Memoir,' p, G9; Ker Porter, ''fre.vels,' draw upon eurre11t beliefs for some feo.tnrea vol. ii. p. 342). Doleful creatures ; in the of hie description. Dr. Ke.y gives" bo.l,oone," originnl, ol,1,im. What animal is meant we since the Moko-e. kind of be.boon-is known cnnnot sl\y, RB the word occurs only in thie in Babylonia.. passf\go. Mr. Chcyno tmnslates it by Ver. 22.-Wild beasts of the ielan(h. In •• hyrnnns.'' Owls she.II dwell there; literally, the Hebrew, iyyim, which means" wo.iler3" dauyhterd of the owl (o.~in Lev. xi.16; Dent. or "howlers," probably "jacka.ls." Tl,c Re· xiv. 15; Job xxx. 29; Jer. I. 39; Micah i. 8; viaed Version gi vea " wolves." In their o.nd infra, eh, xxxiv. 13; xliii. 20). Mr. desolate houses; or, in their castles (Cheyne). Rich so.ye, "In most of the cavities of the And dragons; i.e. "serpents." 'fheac have Dabil Mound there a.re numbers of owls and not been observed recently ; bnt onu uf our bats." Sir A. Lnynrd, " A large grey owl old travellers notes that "the Ian de of Ilaby- ie found in groo.t numbers, frequently iu lone," in his da.y, "was fulle of drag-ons o.nd flocks of nearly!\ hundrocl, in the low shrubs grete serpente;, anrl dyverije other ,·c!lc)'• nmoog the ruins of Babylon" (' Nin. and mouse bestes e.lle abonten '' (Manclcville, Dab.,' p. 484, note). Satyrs shall danoe there. quoted by Ker Porter, 'Travels,' vol. ii. p. The word tra.nslo.ted "satyr'' is, etymologi- 336). Near to come. About one hunrlred and cally, "hairy one," and ordinarily means" a eighty years elapsed between the utterance goat." Some have supposed "wild goats" of this prophecy and the fall of Bo.bylon-a to he here intended, but they are not found short period in t.he lifetime of a. nation. in Da.bylonio.. 'l'be translation " so.tyr " ill
HOMILETICS. Vcrs. 1-18;-The fall of Babylon a type of the general punishment of the wic'ketl. Scripture deals with history altogether in the way of example. Whether the subject •be Assyria, ·or Syria, or Egypt, or Babylon, or even the "peculiar people of God," the object is to tee.eh men by the facts adduced what they have to expect themselves. In eh, x. .Assyria, here Babylon, ie held up as a waruin:i; to sinners. The absolute certainty that punishment will overtake them at God's hands is the main lesson taught; but, beyond this, sometbillg is also taught concerning the method and (so to speilk) economy of the Divine punishments; as, for example, the following:- 1. 'l'HAT Gon PUNISHES BY MEANS OF INSTRUMENTS, WHICH ABE GENERALLY PERSONS. God ·has two sets of instruments-natural agents, such as storm, lightning, blight, pestilence, ete:; and intellectual and moral a.gents, or persons. It dependl! entirely 011 his own will .whether he will employ agents of the one kind or of the other. In dis- pensing good to man he employs largely natural agents, " making his sun to rise on the evil and.on the good, and sending rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt. v. 45). But in })Unisbing 111en be seems to make use, to a greater extent, of pC"rsons. Now he raises up a-tyrannical and oppressive king, like Rameses II. or Nebucho.dnezzo.r, to carry out his sentence of suffering; now he allows a democratic assembly to establish a reign of terror in a sinful land; anon he uses the arrnws of savago hordes, or the guns and bayonets of disciplined hosts, to chastise an offending people. Once only bas'he ever used his power to strike with sudden death on a large scale, and even there he employed a spiritna1 agent; it was "the angel of the Lord," who "went out and 6inote in the camp of the AssyriaDII one hundred and fourscore and five thousanJ." (2 Ki1igs xix. 35). ,_. IL; -'l'H-AT: TilE INSTRUMENTS ARE FOR THE HOST PART QUITE UNCONSCIOUS TB.AT Gon IS U~ING THEM. We are told this distinctly of Assyria. "I will )!h·e him a charge . . . howbeit be meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so" (eh. x. 6, i). And it was, no doubt, equ!llly true of Babylon. The "hammer of the whole earth" (Jcr. I. 23) did not know that she was being used to" break in pieces the nations, and to destroy kingdoms" (Jer. li. 20). She too "meant not so," but was only seeking her own aggrandizement. Even the Mades and the Persians, though "ea.lied from a far country to execute God's counsel" (eh. xlvii. 11), were unconscious of their call- blind instruments in the hand of Jehovah, ae much as if they had been an army ot locusts. But this only shows the power of God th~ more, who can make not only good men serve him, but bad ; not only angels, but devils. Ill. THAT GoD'il PUNISHMENTS CO.ME SUDDENLY AND TAKE :II.EN BY BUB"lWI& THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. (oR. xtn, 1-22.