Fulfilled Prophecy

The Sure Word of Prophecy - Some Fulfilled Prophecy.

OF Babylon the prophet wrote, " The beauty of the Chaldee's excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah." To the people of that time this seemed an impossibility, and we can hardly wonder when we consider that Babylon was the greatest work of human hands. Two million men were employed in its construction. It was built in a perfect square, fifteen miles on each side, and was surrounded by a brick wall eighty-five feet thick and 330 feet high. One hundred gates of solid, polished brass formed entrances to a magnificent interior, where temples, palaces, and hanging gardens were alike noted for their beauty and grandeur. But God bad declared that this wicked city should become a place for " wild beasts " and "dragons."

Babylon fell 174 years after the prophet had passed sentence. The city of splendour went down spoiled and
plundered by hostile nations. In the fourth century A.D., it was used as an enclosure for wild beasts. A traveller who visited the site in the twelfth century stated that the few remaining ruins were so filled with venomous reptiles that it was dangerous to inspect them closely. It is even " as Sodom and Gomorrah."

In speaking of Tyre the Lord said, "I will make thee like the top of a rock : thou shalt be a place to spread
nets upon."

That ancient city was built of stone, and its walls were seventeen miles in circumference. The builders of Tyre
were said to "have perfected her beauty." She was so rich that her ships were of fir and cedar, their benches
of ivory, and the sails of fine embroidered linen from Egypt:

Tyre envied Jerusalem the trade that passed through !her gates, and when Jerusalem was destroyed she rejoiced. It was after this that Ezekiel uttered his prophecy, every word of which was literally fulfilled.

After a terrible siege, lasting thirteen years, Nebuchadnezzar took the city. The people escaped and moved to an island about half a mile from the mainland, and there built a new city.

Alexander the Great determined to besiege the city, and having no fleet, built a mole, 200 feet broad, from the mainland to the island city. In doing this he had to use the stones of old Tyre. This was a literal fulfillment of a prophecy spoken 250 years before, "They shall lay thy stones ... in the midst of the water." Thus Tyre was left bare " like the top of a rock." Masses of broken walls, pillars, and vaults are still to be seen, but there is not a complete house left. The present inhabitants, a few poor fishermen, live among the vaults. It has become a "place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea."

Memphis was an ancient capital of Egypt. For more than a thousand years it was the royal city. Yet the prophet declared that it should be " waste and desolate without an inhabitant."

This city was built of white marble, and was called by the Egyptians "The World of Life," "City of the White Walls," and "The Good Abode." It was nineteen miles in circumference. The Memphian pyramids have excited the wonder and admiration of a world.

The grandeur and splendour of the structures of Memphis must have been attractive since ancient writers declare that the sun had never seen a more magnificent city. The inhabitants thought their city eternal; but now it is silent under the desert sands, "desolate without an inhabitant."

Empires pass away, nations fall, cities are brought to ruin, "but the Word of our God shall stand forever!"

MABEL DE JERSEY.