Ver. 19.-The jaJJ, -0/ pride. The type of pride, in Scripture, is Babylon; to the grandeur of it the Chaldees pointed in self-admiring triumph. "'l'he words of this text paint the impression which the great city, even in Isaiah's time, mad!! upon all who saw it. So Nebuchadnezzar, though his work was mainly that of ·a restorer, exulted in bis pride in the greatness of the city of which he claimed to be the builder (Dan. iv. 30). So Herodotus describes it as the most famous and strongest of 'all tha cities of .Assyria, adorned beyond any other city on which his eyes had ever looked." God's dealings with nations a.re illustrations, in the large, of his dealings with families and individuals. The evil recognized as characteristic. of a nation may be equally characteristic of a family and of an individual, on whom, therefore, the appropriate Divine judgments will be sure to fall. Nations stand forth prominently in the•world's eye, and keep their lessons in history for the instruction of all the ages. This may be illustrated from the Babylonian kingdom of the ancient days, and from Napoleonic France of modem times. The following points will readily suggest illustration from history, and from the circle of our actual experience. L PRIDE OF CON~UEST HAS NEVER PROVED LASTING. See the stories of Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, Tamerlane, Charlemagne, Buona.parte, and others. It is equally true of cases of private acquisition. The man who grasps his neig;hb?ur's property, and joins field to field, has to le&rn that God hateth tbe proud. The riches gathered fly away, or the son that follows him squanders it all. • , IL PRIDE OF SOCIAL GRANDEun HAS NEVER PllOVED LASTING. Beckford thought to outrival all country mansions with his Fonthill .Abbey, a:id it fell, and great was the fall thereof. Grant thougbt to build a r alace in the west of London, gr.ander than all around him, and it has passed uuder the hammer of the at.1ctioneer. , . •. ILL PRIDE OF COMMERCIAL Pl!OSPERITY HAB NEVER PROVED LASTING, Veni,co' a,nd Genoa and the Holland ports illustrate this. God's providence brings round the jut!g- ment when the pride has become overwhelming. God holds a limit beyond which he never permits a nation, a family, or an individual to go. As soon as pri~e begiuR to take the honour iue to Goel, stability is over, our foundations begin to sl11ft, _an\i _the night of tl,e first wild storm all that we have raised so anxiously lies about us uuu1ns. Thi,n is a day of God always near at hand for tbe proud.-R. T. on. XIV. 1-32.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 243
Vere. 21, 22.-LiteraZ fulji,Zmene of prophecy. The lnnguage of modern travelle1·s 1Jlustrates the fulfilment of the prediction. Layard says," Owls start from the scanty thickets, and the foul jackal stalks among the furrows." "It is a naked and hideous waste." Dr. Plumptre says, "The work was, however, accompanied by slow degrees, and was not, like the destrnction of Nineveh, the result of a single overthrow. Darius dismantled its walls, Xerxes pulled down the temple of Belus. Alexander contem- plated its restoration, but his designs were frustrated by his early death. Susa and Ecbatana, Seleucia and Antioch, Ctesiphon and Bagdad, became successively the centres ofcommerce and of government." By the time of Strabo (n.o. 20) the work was accom- plished, and the "vast city" had become a "vast desolation." In illustrating the literal fulfilment of this prophecy, the dean further says, "The Bedonins themselves, pa1tly because the place is desolate, partly from a superstitious horror, shrink from encamping on the sites of the ancient temples and palaces, and they are left to lions, and _other beasts of prey. On the other hand, Joseph Wolff, the missionary, describes a strange weird scene-pilgrims of the Yezidis, or devil-worshippers, dancing and howl- ing like dervishes .amid the ruins of Babylon." It is interesting to note the following passage from the 'Itinerary' of Benjamin Bar-jona, given by Matthew Henry. "This is. tbat Babel which was of old thirty miles in breadth; it is now laid waste. There are yet to be seen the ruins of a palace of Nebuchadnezzar, but the sons of men dare not enter in, for fear of serpents and scorpions, which possess the place." For further indications of the precision of fulfilment, encyclopredias and books of Eastern travel should be studied. We point out here that prophecy is usually poetic, and, rather, vaguely descriptive and suggestive, than precise or minute. Sometimes, however, for the verifying of all prophecies, some portions are made precise, and are literally fulfilled, 3!I in the case of Babylon; and the two following points may be usefully illustrated:- I. LITERAL FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY CONFIRMING THE DIVINE Wo1rn . • II. GENERAL F'ULFILMENTS TIIEREB_Y SHOWN TO BE EQUALLY COXFIRMATORY. When once the principle is established, we are freed from all bondage to demands for exact an.d .minute agreements, and can freely read Scripture prophecy as full of poetical figure and imagery,-R, 'r,