led
galleries several hundred feet into the heart of the summits, on each
side of which are the apartments of death.

Inscriptions, three thousand years old, can be distinctly traced.

How little thought the Hebrews, while toiling under the shadow of
palaces, or flying at night from the mighty realm of Egypt, of what we
find to-day along the banks of the Nile!

The doom of Babylon, with that of the great invaders and conquerors of
Palestine, is equally wonderful and instructive.

Probably no nation of antiquity was more distinguished for luxury and
corrupt pleasures than this unrivalled city.

Its last king, Nabonnidus, reigned about one hundred years before Christ
appeared; and in less than that time afterward, the city walls enclosed
a hunting ground or park for the recreation of Persian monarchs. We
cannot well imagine a more complete destruction than has overtaken the
once rich and gay metropolis. The ruins are a number of mounds, formed
of crumbled buildings, and strewn all over with pieces of brick,
bitumen, and potter's vessels.

The Assyrian kings of western Asia, also invaded the Holy Land. They
ruled a vast and powerful realm, whose principal city was Nineveh, to
which Jonah was sent with a message from God.

Sennacherib, the monarch who reigned seven hundred years before Christ,
marched his armies against the cities of Judah and took them. Not
satisfied with the terms of surrender he threatened further invasion.

At this crisis, in answer to prayer, Jehovah sent his angel to destroy
the troops; and in one night the unseen messenger of destruction slew
one hundred and eighty-five thousand men.

Of this miraculous defeat a gifted but irreligious and unhappy poet has
sung:

And there lay the steed with his nostrils all wide,
But through them there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beaten surf.

And there lay the rider, distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail;
And the tents were all silent, and the banners alone,
And the lances unlifted, the trumpets unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentiles, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow at the glance of the Lord.

Now the greater part of the country which once formed Assyria, is under
the sway of the Turks.

Mosul,