The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1879-12-03
4 BIT or PROPHECY.

fact fulflment of prophecy All sorts of
things are suggested to get rid of a plain,
unequivocal, literal prediction, and aplain,
unequivocal, literal fulfIment Witness
the recent attempt in such a paper as the
Sunday School Times to fritter away the
ffty-third cMpter Of Isaiah into a mere
prophecy Of the suferings of the Jew
ish people And so Daniels prophecies
were so infinitely fulfilled, that extraordi-
nary efforts have been made to show that
the book originated in the time of the
Maccabees, or some hundreds of years af-
ter Daniel
We happened to pick up the other day
an old book-which we had not seen for
many years" Keith's Demonstration of
Christianity and we became interested
in reading his presentation of the prophe-
cies about the destruction of Babylon, and
their remarkable fulflment
OF course the two great pillars Of the
evidence from prophecy must ever remain
to be the prophecies with regard to Christ
and those with regard to the Jews. And
Of course, apart from looking to any spe-
cial texts or even chapters, the strength
Of the prophetic evidence consists in the
utterance of the Old Testament as q
whoZe-in the spirit and the idea that
runs all through it; in the development
of the patriarchal history, and the call of
Abraham in the adoption Of the Hebrew
race, and their deliverance from Egypt,
and their establishment in the promised
land in the whole Mosaic ritual in the
whole language Of type, and figure, and
symbol, as embodied in the whole Jew
ish worship; and in the succession of the
prophets proclaiming century after cen
fury the advent Of the Messianic glory.
1t is the Old Testament in its totality
that heralds the dawn of the New 1t is
only when taken in connection with the
New that it becomes really a clear utter
ance. What fulness Of meaning, for ex-
ample, is given to the Psalms in the light
of Christianity
But we were not thinking of this sort
of evidence in connection with prophecy
| Just now. Apart from this aspect of the
matter, there are isolated and special
prophecies on special topics that have
been most astonishingly realized and
among them one of the most striking is
this one about Babylon.
Now, there is no doubt that Babylon
was still great city in the time of Alex
ander the Great (about $50 B. O. And
no one will dispute that the prophecies of
Isaiah and Jeremiah were written some
centuries before this date. Indeed, on
their face they show that Babylon was
then one of the great capitals of the
world. Now they predict its absolute
and complete destruction. Babylon shall
become heaps" "a burnt mountain, "a
desolation, a dry land, a wilderness"
wholly desolate, pools of water" &c.,
&c. 81 will send unto Babylon tanners
that shall fan her." L" it shall not be in
habited :" cit shall never be inhabited !"
"nor dwelt in from generation to genera
ton" neither shall the Arabian pitch
tent there" the wild beasts of the de-
sert shall lie there :" their houses shall
be full of doleful creatures" and owls
shall dwell there, and wild-goats shall
gambol there; !" and dragons shall be in
their pleasant palaces; )" " they shall not
take of thee a stone for corner, nor
stone for foundations, but thou shalt be
desolate forever" the broad walls of
Babylon shall be utterly broken &C., &c.
Now all this (and much more) has
been fulfilled to the miratest particular.
In the time Of Strabo and Dlodorus Slcu--
lus, the place lay in ruins, and has so
continued to this day, Since the days of
Alexander the Great four great capitals
have been built out of its remains-Se-
leucia by the Greeks, CtesiphOn by the
Parthians, Al Madam by the Persians,
and Kufa by the Caliphs-the materials
having been transported along the rivers
and canals.
1t was not extraordinary that Babylon
should have been destroyed. The prophet
might have fired a random shot, and hit
that mark for it was no uncommon thing
Co.. n;tinc Ia hn dnctround In nnninnt tirnns