uthful too. W. Taylor, one of Rawlinson's assistants, discovered an
inscribed cylinder in Ur of the Chaldees containing an account of the
reign of this very Nabonnidus, which Sir Henry describes in a letter to
the _Athenaeum_, (1854, page 341): "The most important facts, however,
which they disclose are that the eldest son of Nabonnidus was named
Bel-shar-ezar, and that he was admitted by his father to a share in the
government." This name is undoubtedly the Belshazzar of Daniel, and thus
furnishes a key to the explanation of that great historical problem
which has hitherto defied solution. We can now understand how
Belshazzar, as _joint-king_ with his father, may have been Governor of
Babylon when the city was attacked by the combined forces of the Medes
and Persians, and may have perished in the assault which followed; while
Nabonnidus, leading a force to the relief of the place, was defeated,
and was obliged to take refuge in Borsippa, capitulating after a short
resistance, and being subsequently assigned, according to Berosus, to an
honorable retirement in Carmania. A minute coincidence also is thus
brought to light, showing the accuracy of the inspired historian in one
of the details of his narrative. Belshazzar elevates him to the position
of Grand Vizier, or Prime Minister, which, under ordinary circumstances,
would be the _second_ place of dignity in the empire. But Daniel
represents the king as raising him to the _third_ place, which we now
see to be strictly correct, since Belshazzar himself was the second in
rank. Thus the weapons discharged against the Bible ever recoil upon the
heads of its assailants.

Not only among the monuments of the great historic nations do we now
discover corroborations of Scripture, the records and monuments of even
obscure nations are most strangely turning up and being discovered,
after lying unnoticed for centuries, as if God had reserved their
testimony for the time when it would be needed and valued. The Bible
does not refer to the history of the surrounding nations, save in
connection with their relations to Israel; but it is surprising to see
how many of these references are corroborated by recent discoveries. The
Bible, for instance, describes[139] Omri as establishing a kingdom with
his capital at Samaria, and he and his son, Ahab, making war on Mesha,
King of Moab, conquering him and making him pay an annual tribute of one
hundred thousand lambs and one hundred thousand ra