Another mound, called Birs Nimrod, or tower of Babel, consists of a heap of rubbish 200 feet high, on the top of which is a tower 60 feet high.
How vast must have been the edifices, which have left such mighty heaps of ruins! And yet how complete is the destruction and desolation of this famous city—which once was forty-eight miles in circuit; defended by walls fifty feet in height; filled with thousands of people; the seat of luxury, pride, and pleasure; the abode of princes; embellished with palaces, and hanging gardens, and temples, and all that could delight the eyes of a luxurious nation.
Alas! “Babylon is fallen!” “The glory of kingdoms” is departed. The fearful prophecy of Isaiah, uttered thousands of years ago, when Babylon was still a great and proud city, has been literally fulfilled. “The wild beasts of the desert shall lie there,” says he, “and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.”
Modern travellers, who have visited the spot, tell us that the scene is just what is here depicted. Even the very animals, spoken of by the prophet, are to be met with amid the caves, and ruins, and desolation of the place. What a striking instance is this, of the fulfilment of prophecy!
Adam and Eve.
The story of Adam and Eve—their residence in the Garden of Eden; their temptation; their fall; their expulsion from the place which was so beautiful, and where they had been so happy; their incurring the displeasure of their Divine Benefactor; their going forth—with prospects so changed—where toil and care should attend them; where thorns and briars must be in their path, and where they must thereafter get their bread by the sweat of the brow,—all this is a picture at once exceedingly touching, and at the same time full of instruction.
Most people are very apt to think that if they had been situated like this first human pair, they should have behaved more wisely. But do we not all of us have nearly the same experience as our first parents? We are all capable of living innocently—and of enjoying the bliss, the Eden, the paradise—which innocence bestows. But we voluntarily cast away our innocence; we eat the forbidden fruit; we commit sin; we become degraded; we lose the favor of God; we stand before him as sinners!
Like Adam and Eve, then, we are cast out; like them we find thorns and briars in our way; like them we encounter cares, and doubts, and fears, and sorrows, in our journey through life. We eat our bread by the sweat of the brow.
Who is there, that does not feel that his errors are his own—that he, and he only, is responsible for them? Instead, therefore, of saying that if we had been placed in another’s situation, we had done better than he has done, let us rather look to ourselves—and instead of palliating or hiding our faults, let us confess them before God, with an humble, and contrite, and obedient heart—and ask forgiveness for them in the name of the Redeemer.