—The coal fields of China cover about 400,000 square miles.
—The cholera is developing alarmingly in Marseilles, Lyons, and elsewhere in the south of France.
—A building is now being erected for the International Exhibition to be held at Athens in 1887.
—The San Francisco coroner reports that during the past year there were eighty-three suicides in that city.
—Riel, the leader of the half-breed rebellion in Manitoba, has been sentenced to be hanged on the 18th of September.
—July 27, a band of armed highwaymen stopped a stage two miles from Nevada City, Cal., and robbed the passengers of several hundred dollars.
—Reform is rampant nowadays. The Oxford, Miss., Eagle of July 2, says: "No more ballot-box stuffing, except in cases of absolute necessity."
—Sir Moses Montefiore, the well-known Hebrew philanthropist, whose one-hundredth birthday was celebrated last October, died in London, July 28.
—It is now definitely ascertained that El Mahdi is dead. Before his death he enjoined upon his successor to continue to wage war with the Christians.
—Terrible storms of rain and lightning have prevailed in the southern provinces of France. Many farm-houses have been destroyed, and many persons killed.
—The S. F. Bulletin says: "Experiments at Merced in the cultivation of the opium poppy have proved successful." One would suppose that California has been cursed enough with opium, without raising it.
—In 1840 the total quantity of opium consumed in the United States was about 20,000 pounds. In 1880 it had increased to 533,450 pounds. In 1868 it was estimated that there were from 80,000 to 100,000 victims of the opium habit in this country; now they number over 500,000.
—The harvest in India is now completed, and the yield is reported to be about 7,713,000 tons, more than half a million tons in excess of the average of late years.
—The beet-sugar factory, at Alvarado, near Oakland, has this season turned out 1,250 tons of refined beet-sugar. The factory pays out about $90,000 a year for beets.
—The people of Huesca, Spain, have risen in revolt against the execution of the excise law. They attacked the house of the excise collector, and burned it to the ground.
—The Chicago Tribune has collected statistics which show that since January 1 there have been ninety-nine lynchings in the United States, and only forty legal executions.
—Since the Fourth of July fifteen persons have died in Chicago from wounds received from toy pistols, the paper caps of which contain poison that is fatal, producing lock-jaw and death.
—One of the prisoners confined in the jail at Baker City, Or., set fire to the building, July 29. Five prisoners perished in the flames, the only one rescued being the incendiary, who was badly burned.
—A cable dispatch announces the total loss, on the 18th of July, off Cooktown, Australia, of the ship John Decosta. The ship was bound for California, from Melbourne, with a cargo of valuable horses. The fate of the crew has not been ascertained.
—The committee, consisting of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Manning, the Bishop of London, and others, to investigate the charges of immorality made by the Pall Mall Gazette, report that the statements made by that paper are substantially true.
—A collision occurred July 29, ten miles from Victoria, B. C., between the steamers Enterprise and R. P. Rithet. The Enterprise was totally wrecked, everything being lost except the mail and express. Many persons were thrown into the water, but all were rescued except two Chinamen.
—It cost $8,400 to remove the ice from the wharves in Montreal. Work was begun May 4th with 500 men and 100 horses and carts, and by the 26th of the same month the removal was completed. From a rough calculation it is shown that about 292,500 tons of ice were lodged on the wharves.
—General Sheridan says that there need be no fear on the part of settlers of Southern Kansas, from hostilities by the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians. He says: "I have gone down to the bottom of the affairs here, and know that the irritation was the result of bad control and oppressive measures."
—The Panama Canal directors have asked the French Government to sanction a new issue of 500,000,000 francs' worth of bonds. Premier Brisson opposes the demand on the ground that there is a deficit in the budget and the country cannot take other responsibilities. De Lesseps maintains that the canal will be completed in 1888.
—The San Francisco Chronicle says: "Steamer rates to and from Stockton have fallen to merely nominal figures. Chinese are carried by the competing lines at 10 cents a head, and large numbers of white passengers are carried free. The freight rates on grain, which were four months ago $1.50 a ton, are now 25 to 40 cents, and still lower rates are taken on large shipments."
—The cholera is raging with increased fury in Spain. In the village of Montagudo, 100 miles north of Madrid, there have been 210 deaths in eight days. Great excitement prevails. The troops stationed in the city of Sargossa, where the disease is raging, have been supplied with guitars to keep up their spirits, and it is said that the sound of the instruments can be heard day and night.
—George W. Hibbard, general agent for the Union Pacific and connecting lines, says that neither the Union Pacific nor any of the transcontinental lines are feeling any anxiety over the reported intention of the Pacific Mail to withdraw its Australian steamers. The business, he says, is too valuable to lose, and if the Pacific Mail retires there will be no difficulty in organizing a company to take its place.
—Severe floods, very destructive to life and property, have been experienced in Denver, Col., and vicinity. At Colorado Springs, July 26, a cloud-burst carried away railroad and wagon bridges, and houses with their occupants. There were a number of summer campers on the banks of a stream near town, their tents have been seen floating in the streams, and as the flood came in the night, it is supposed that they all perished.
His Slavery.
It is easier to break off a bad habit suddenly than gradually. The gradual plan was tried at the inebriate asylums, but it was found that the best thing to do with an old toper was to cut off his supply of drink at once. For a day or two, or even three or four days, he suffered much; but the vital powers, after being relieved of the daily poison, quickly rallied, and the man improved in health every hour.
It is so with the tobacco slavery. An interesting anecdote in point is told of the late James Harper, one of the founders of the great publishing house of Harper & Brothers. When he was a young publisher in Cliff Street, he tried hard to dissuade one of his neighbors from drinking. One day, when he had talked earnestly on the subject, his friend turned upon him thus:—
“Neighbor Harper, you don’t like the taste of liquor, but you are as much a slave to tobacco as I am to rum, and you couldn’t break off that habit any more than I could break off drinking.”
To this retort Mr. Harper made no reply at the time, but it sunk deep into his mind. He thought it over all day, and finally made up his mind that no habit of his should ever be a snare to another. Before he slept that night he put his tobacco, his pipes, and all the apparatus of smoking away up out of sight on the top shelf of his kitchen. To the day of his death he never used tobacco again. It cost him a severe effort to keep his resolution, but he made it cheerfully, and did not mention the matter until the victory was complete.
Many persons are still living who have heard him relate this incident of his early life.
Thurlow Weed did something similar. When he had been a pretty hard smoker for fifty years, his physician told him that his cigars were injuring him, and that he must stop smoking if he wished to ever have better health. Mr. Weed took his cigar from his mouth, threw it away, and never smoked again.—Sel.
Fashion.
AND now let us see what fashion does. We find an answer, which is here inserted. “Fashion rules the world,” and a most tyrannical mistress she is, compelling people to submit to the most inconvenient things imaginable, for fashion’s sake. She pinches our feet with tight boots, or chokes us with a tight neckerchief, or squeezes the breath out of our body by tight lacing. She makes it vulgar to wait on ourselves, and genteel enough to live idly and uselessly. She makes people visit when they would rather stay at home; eat when they are not hungry, and drink when they are not thirsty.
She invades our pleasure and interrupts our business. She compels people to dress gaily, whether upon their own property—or that of others, whether agreeable to the word of God or the dictates of pride. She makes people sit up when they should be in bed, and keeps them in bed in the morning when they ought to be up and doing. She ruins health and produces sickness, destroys life and occasions death. She makes foolish parents, invalids of children, and servants of all. She is a tormentor of conscience, a despoiler of morality, and an enemy of religion; and no one can be her companion and enjoy either.
Custom, like fashion, is the plague of wise men and the idol of fools. Fashion is an enemy to health, a foe to wealth, and the canker-worm of honor. It brings down men from high places which they secured by humility and economy. It strips one of the bloom of health obtained before the foolish customs of fashionable society were known or observed. It stops accumulation and dissipates the gatherings of former years.—Sel.
News and Notes.
By Editor
RELIGIOUS.
—The Rotterdam Missionary Society in East Java reports 4,000 church-members.
—Monsignore Capel does not favor the founding of a Catholic university in the United States.
—Rev. Irenaeus Prime, D. D., editor of the New York Observer, died, July 19, aged seventy-three. For over forty-five years he was connected with the Observer, and during that time his letters over the signature “Irenaeus,” were read with interest and profit by many thousands in both hemispheres, as they were copied extensively by all religious journals.
—The Christian Standard says: “We have heard of sneezing parties, and kissing parties, and gambling parties, with a view to raise money for church purposes. Indeed, there is scarcely any innocent pastime or mischievous folly that has not been resorted to with a view to supply churches with money; and the church is thus on its knees in base submission to an unbelieving world, praying for help, much oftener, we fear, than on its knees before God seeking help and guidance.”
—A Congregational council in New Haven, Conn., recently licensed a young man to the ministry, who, in his examination, announced that he did not believe in the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he did not pray to Christ, and that he would not direct a sinner to Christ as his Saviour. Yet I presume we should be accused of uncharitableness if we should say that that young preacher is not a Christian, or should express doubts as to the religious perceptions of that council. The statement of the young man’s unbelief is given by the Advance (Congregationalist).
—This from the Churchman: “The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher recently declared that the baptism of an infant can have no possible effect whatsoever upon the child. . . . We do not care to discuss Mr. Beecher’s general views concerning sin. We only have this one question to ask: Did the Lord command his disciples through all time to observe a perfectly useless ceremony?” Sure enough, did he? If the Lord had commanded his disciples to “baptize” infants there would be some use in it; but if the Churchman knew the Bible as thoroughly as it does the Prayer Book, it would know that he never gave any such commandment.
Make the Application
“THOU wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.” Isaiah 26 : 3, 4.
Make the Application.
WE once heard a minister preach an excellent, practical, searching sermon, but at its close he thanked God that it was not applicable to his present congregation. There are many such sermons preached, true enough, perhaps, but which have very little reference to the real spiritual needs of those who hear them, and to the practical duties of life which devolve upon them. All preaching should have but one object, and that is to so present the truths of God's word as to savingly influence the hearts and lives of men.
Both doctrine and duty must be combined. Abstract doctrines, without a practical application of them to the every-day duties of life, are of little importance; and to attempt to enforce practical duties without a basis of doctrinal truth, would be like attempting to build an edifice without a foundation.
The great doctrines of the gospel should be preached, and then they should be faithfully applied, so as to influence the every-day life and conduct of the people. And truths applicable to those addressed, rather than truths applicable to some other class, should be selected and enforced. The principles of the gospel should be brought to bear upon the present aspects of society, the practices, pursuits, indulgences, pleasures, and occurring events of life. The truths of the gospel constitute the great rule that is to be applied to all the principles and practices of men, to test their correctness. What is wanted in preaching is the plain, practical application of the great doctrines of the gospel to every phase of human life and character, and this affords a sufficient range to prevent dullness and monotony.—Sel.
The Remedy for Selfishness.
By William N. Glenn
PAUL prophesied that a characteristic trait of the people of the last days would be selfishness; and that, on this account, there would be "perilous times." In writing to Timothy, at a time when he knew that he was shortly to be "offered," and the time of his departure was at hand, he uttered this prophecy: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." 2 Tim. 3: 1-5.
It does not require much stretch of imagination to see the fulfillment of this prophecy at the present time. If the present generation does not answer the description here given, it can hardly be claimed that there is any point in the prophecy at all, and it would seem almost useless to look for its fulfillment. But there are many who do discern the fulfillment in the existing condition of society, and deem it a duty to "call upon all men everywhere to repent" and prepare for the Judgment. Therefore in carrying forward what is deemed to be the last work of reformation, it is well for those engaged in it to consider the situation, and work with reference to the principal evil. If love of self is to be the characteristic fault of the last days, those who do the Lord's work in such times will have to make a specialty of combating this evil; for if it predominate in the world there will be danger of it cropping out in the church also. The church is not only made up of accessions from the world, but it is constantly surrounded by the temptations of the world, after which the "unstable" are always more or less inclined to go.
Supposing that we are in the "last days" now, from the fact that this trait of character is manifest everywhere, in all classes of society, what shall be done to counteract the "perilous" influences arising from this state of things? Especially, what shall be done to keep it out of the church? Let us turn to the example of our Lord, and inquire what he did in such a case. We can find in the Scriptures a precedent for almost any emergency. They were "written for our learning," that the man of God might be "thoroughly furnished unto all good works."
Turning to the word, we find an example to the point in Mark 10: 17-22. Yes, the occurrence was deemed of so much importance that it is three times recorded, being also found in Matt. 19 and in Luke 18. Mark gives it as follows:—
"And when he [Jesus] was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest; go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved; for he had great possessions."
Here was a member of the church, one who no doubt really thought he was keeping the commandments, but he was afflicted with that terrible disease, selfishness. He came to the "Good Master," entirely ignorant of his chronic malady, and asked what he should do to inherit eternal life. The discerning eye of the Great Physician at once saw what was his failing, and gave the necessary advice. Note the fact that, aside from the Lord's acute discernment in the case, he "loved him." This fact is sufficient evidence that he gave him the very best advice that could be given, and no more severe than was actually necessary. If giving a part of his property would have answered the purpose, it is probable that only a part would have been required. But Jesus loved him, and was anxious that he should make a thorough work of overcoming. That property, in some way, stood between him and eternal life, and his only safety was in getting it all out of the way.
Here we have the key to the teaching necessary to properly warn the church and the world against that peculiar phase of sin to which they will be specially subjected. Jesus says, "Follow me," and we cannot improve upon the precept of the Great Teacher. His remedy for selfishness was a sacrifice of property—all, if the case be an extreme one—to the cause of God. He exhorted to "take heed, and beware of covetousness" (Luke 12: 15); and the exhortation appears all the more important in the light of Paul's definition of covetousness—"which is idolatry." Col. 3: 5.
Then in view of the great danger before us, to arise from this evil, is it not high time to be inculcating the grace of giving? Surely it will have to be taught throughout the land. It will be of little avail to warn the world of impending peril without specifying wherein the danger exists, and also the most effectual safeguard in such a time. Old and young must needs be fortified against the "perilous times" of the "last days," resulting from men's love of their own selves, and their consequent disregard of the rights of others. If a sacrifice of property to the Lord's work be the sovereign specific for the soul already ensnared by the sin of selfishness, it must certainly be the best preventive of such a malady in the human heart.
W. N. GLENN.
Peace.
God has promised to keep them in perfect peace whose minds are stayed on him. Amid all the storms and conflicts of life, a deep and sweet calm pervades their breasts, and in the composure of their souls they can smile at the commotion and strife around them. They are at peace with God, being reconciled through the death of his Son; they are at peace with themselves, having the answer of a good conscience, and every thought being brought into subjection to the law of Christ; and they are at peace with all men, through the spirit of Christian charity which they possess. No external opposition or trials can rob them of this sweet peace of mind, and no persecutions or temptations can divert them from their course, or turn them aside from the path of duty.
Says the psalmist: "Great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them." "The peace of God which passeth all understanding," says the apostle, "shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." This was the legacy which Christ left to his disciples. "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." "Peace I leave with you, my peace give I unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." This is the portion of God's people—a portion of which the world can never rob them—a portion that shall never be taken from them.—Methodist Recorder.
Christ's Ambassadors.
By D. D. Chapin
THE preacher should be an ambassador; he should speak in another's name; he should bring a message, and that not his own, and that message should have no strange or uncertain sound. There are many messengers, and all should bring and iterate and reiterate the same word. There is and can be but one faith. So it was intended to be. The pulpit has no business with "opinions," or "views," or individual notions; it should have no peculiar voice of its own. It should repeat, "Thus saith the Lord," no more, no less.
And now what is the actual fact as the world sees it? The idea of ambassadorship for the most part is lost; the messenger takes precedence of the message; pulpit is reared against pulpit; as a whole no clear, distinct, definite, message is brought; the "good news" everywhere conflicts with itself, and so the world judges of it. The result is a hundred-headed, Babel-voiced thing. It is a gospel of contradictions, of negations. "Lo here. Lo there," this way, that way, any way; it neutralizes itself; what one would build up another tears down. And so is it to be wondered at that the world is distracted, bewildered, turns away, is indifferent? Such is, and must be, the result in the present disintegrated condition of the Christian world. Surely division and schism are the shrewdest of the devices of the adversary of the one church of God. Yet when the pulpit shall again bring as its message the truth, one, clear, intelligent, it will have no occasion to complain that men will not listen to it.
The Need for God
It is good for a man to be checked, crossed, disappointed, made to feel his need of God; to feel that he is no better off in this world than in a dark forest, unless he has a Father who loves him with an eternal love, and a Holy Spirit who will give him right judgment, and a Saviour who can be touched with the feeling of his infirmities.—Sel.
The Assyrian Empire.
By A. T. J.
By its lines of prophecy, the Bible does certainly give a complete system of historical views. And for any one entering upon the study of history, who wishes to obtain a ready grasp of all of its important points, from which any part of the great field can be entered at any time, and in any direction, there is no better way than to take up and follow the course laid down in the prophetic scriptures. We believe this to be the true method of studying the history of the world. In the Bible, God has just as surely opened to us the book of human history, as he has the book of human destiny. And we believe that we may study the one as well as the other, with the sanction of Him who ruleth over all.
The great field of prophecy opens with Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at the close of the seventh century before Christ. But that we may enter this field understandingly it will be necessary to briefly sketch the history that preceded his accession and the establishment of the empire of Babylon.
“And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.”
Thus we are introduced to the founders, and to the history, of the two, afterward, rival kingdoms of Babylonia and Assyria.
With only occasional and slight variations, Babylonia or Chaldea, down to the time of Nebuchadnezzar, was bounded on the south by the Persian Gulf, on the west by the Arabian Desert, on the east by the River Tigris, and reached northward to the thirty-fourth parallel of latitude. It contained about 23,000 square miles of territory, being almost exactly the size of the State of West Virginia, or the present kingdom of Denmark. At the time when we enter upon its history the border of the Persian Gulf was about 120 or 130 miles farther inland than it now is.
As we have seen, Asshur went forth from Babylon and founded the Assyrian nation. Being thus a colony of Babylonia, it was governed for some time by Babylonian rulers appointed by the Chaldean king. It was not very long, however, till the Babylonian authority was renounced, and the Assyrians established a separate and independent monarchy in the north, while the Chaldean monarchy still flourished in the southern part of the great Mesopotamian plain. Thus Assyria reached from the thirty-fourth parallel of latitude at the south, to the thirty-eighth parallel at the north, and was bounded on the east by the Zagros Mountains, and by the River Euphrates on the west. Its territory consisted of about 75,000 square miles, being just about the size of the State of Nebraska, and a little smaller than Great Britain.
The two kingdoms seem to have passed along very peaceably together, Assyria soon rising to an entire equality with the Babylonian.
“Not only does she treat as an equal with the great Southern Empire—not only is her royal house deemed worthy of furnishing wives to its princes—but when dynastic troubles arise there, she exercises a predominant influence over the fortunes of the contending parties, and secures victory to the side whose cause she espouses.”—Seven Great Monarchies, Second Monarchy, chap. 9, par. 20.
These amicable relations continued down to the accession of the Assyrian king, Tiglathi-Nin, B. C. 1300, who aspired to transfer to Assyria the supremacy, which had been hitherto at least claimed by Babylonia. Accordingly he made war on the Southern Kingdom, and with such success that he was enabled “to inscribe upon his signet-seal the proud title of ‘Conqueror of Babylon.’” He reigned for some time at the southern capital, and, it appears, established an Assyrian dynasty there. But in the course of about a century Babylonia succeeded in throwing off the Assyrian yoke and again establishing her independence.
The next Assyrian monarch of more than common importance was Tiglath-Pileser I., whose accession dates about 1130 B. C. He tells us:—
“There fell into my hands altogether, between the commencement of my reign and my fifth year, forty-two countries with their kings, from the banks of the River Zab to the banks of the River Euphrates, the country of the Khatti, and the upper ocean of the setting sun. I brought them under one government; I took hostages from them, and I imposed on them tribute and offerings.”—Id., par. 41.
All this in his first five years. He afterward marched his army into Babylonia, where he remained two years wasting with fire and sword the northern provinces, and, although he actually captured Babylon, he did not hold it long, and, in his retreat, if his Babylonian opponent, Merodach-iddin-akhi, did not actually defeat him, he did succeed in capturing his idols, and carried them back with him to Babylon, where they remained 418 years, that is, until the tenth year of Sennacherib, B. C. 694, when they were recovered by him and carried back to the Assyrian capital.
The next of the most notable of the kings of Assyria, was Asshur-izir-pal, who ascended the throne B. C. 883.
“During the twenty-five years of his active and laborious reign, Assyria enlarged her bounds and increased her influence in almost every direction, while at the same time she advanced rapidly in wealth and the arts; in the latter respect leaping suddenly to an eminence which, so far as we know, had not previously been reached by human genius. The size and magnificence of Asshur-izir-pal’s buildings, the artistic excellence of their ornamentation, the pomp and splendor which they set before us as familiar to the king who raised them, the skill in various useful arts which they display or imply, have excited the admiration of Europe, which has seen with astonishment that many of its inventions were anticipated, and that its luxury was almost equaled by an Asiatic people nine centuries before the Christian era.”—Id., par. 66.
In the first six years of his reign Asshur-izir-pal successfully conducted ten military campaigns, and styles himself “the conqueror from the upper passage of the Tigris to Lebanon and the Great Sea, who has reduced under his authority all countries from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same.”
He was succeeded by his son Shalmaneser, the second of that name, who reigned thirty-five years. During the first twenty-seven years, he successfully led, in person, twenty-three military expeditions. Among the countries invaded, Babylonia, Media, Persia, Chaldea on the sea coast which was now independent of Babylon, and Syria (Damascus) are the principal ones. He led two expeditions into Babylonia, in the second of which he defeated and slew the pretender to the Babylonian crown, marched into Babylon itself, and then on to Chaldea on the coast, and so, as he says, the power of his army “struck terror as far as the sea.” Five times he invaded the kingdom of Damascus or Syria—three times against Ben-hadad, and twice against Hazael—and, after finally subduing Hazael and plundering his principal towns, the terror of his arms struck as far as to the Mediterranean Sea; and Tyre, and Sidon, and the kingdom of Israel under Jehu, hastened to make their submission, and to pay tribute, to the mighty Shalmaneser, king of Assyria.
Shalmaneser died and was succeeded by his son Shamas-Vul, in the year 823 B. C. Shamas-Vul conducted several military campaigns, the most important of which was the one against Babylon. The Babylonians, alarmed at his approach, occupied a strongly fortified city on his line of march, which he besieged and captured, slew 18,000 men, and took 3,000 prisoners, plundered and burnt the city, and pressed on against the retreating enemy. The Babylonian monarch, Merodach-belat-zu-ikhi, gathered together again his own troops, and those of his allies, “a vast host,” and met Shamas-Vul at the River Daban, a branch of the Euphrates. The Babylonians were again defeated, with the loss of 5,000 killed, 2,000 prisoners, 100 chariots, 200 tents, and the royal standard and pavilion, and “Babylonia, which has so long been an independent kingdom is reduced to the condition of a tributary of Assyria.”
Shamas-Vul was succeeded by his son Vul-lush III., in 810 B. C. Vul-lush was as warlike as any of his predecessors, and extended the Assyrian dominion to still larger limits. He exercised the power of a sovereign over Babylonia, and speaks of himself as “the king to whose son, Asshur, the chief of the gods, has granted the kingdom of Babylon.” From which it would appear that he made his son viceroy over the country.
“It thus appears that by the time of Vul-lush III., or early in the eighth century B. C., Assyria had with one hand grasped Babylonia, while with the others she had laid hold of Philistia and Edom. She thus touched the Persian Gulf on the one side, while on the other she was brought into contact with Egypt. At the same time she had received the submission of at least some portion of the great nation of the Medes. She held Southern Armenia, from Lake Van to the sources of the Tigris; she possessed all Upper Syria, including Commagene and Amanus; she had tributaries even on the further side of that mountain range; she bore sway over the whole Syrian coast from Issus to Gaza; her authority was acknowledged by the Phœnicians, the Hamathites, the Patena, the Hittites, the Syrians of Damascus, the people of Israel, and the Idumæans or people of Edom. On the east she had reduced almost all the valleys of Zagros, and had tributaries in the great upland on the eastern side of the [Zagros] Range.”—Id., par. 112.
At the death of Vul-lush, there was a pause for a period of thirty-six years (B. C. 781-745) in the “magnificent course of Assyrian conquests” which had hardly known a check for more than a hundred years. The kings that occupied this interval were Shalmaneser III., Asshur-dayan III., Asshur-lush, and Pul (2 Kings 15:19; 1 Chron. 5:26). And after Pul, in B. C. 745 there arose another mighty conqueror, Tiglath-Pileser II. (2 Kings 15:29; 16:7, 10; 1 Chron. 5:6, 26; 2 Chron. 28:20). Such an one was needed if the empire was to be preserved, for in the interval aforementioned, during the reigns of the three ease-loving, effeminate kings who preceded Pul, there was insurrection after insurrection, and revolt after revolt, and there was not enough military spirit in these kings to quell any of them. Pul seems to have had some enterprise, for he invaded Israel and took tribute from Menahem. But when Tiglath-Pileser arose, all the vigor of the old empire is again asserted.469During this season of weakness and revolt, the old Babylonian kingdom was all broken up by upstart kings. Nabonassar established himself at the head of affairs in Babylon itself; a certain Yakin, or Baladan, the father of Merodach-Baladan, became master of the tract upon the sea coast; and towards the north various princes, Nadina, Zakiru, and others, at the same time obtained petty governments which they administered in their own names. Nabonassar was the most determined and energetic one among the number, and he took a step by which he expected to be remembered at least—he destroyed all the records that he could get hold of, of kings who had preceded him in Babylon, and began to number the years from the date of his own accession B. C. 747, and thus came the “era of Nabonassar.” He held the throne of Babylon fourteen years. He was succeeded in 733 by Nadius, who reigned two years, to 731, and after him came three weak kings, Chinzirus, Porus, and Elulæus, by name, when Merodach-Baladan, who had succeeded his father as king of the coast territory, extended his authority over the upper country; and became king of Babylon in fact. Isa. 39:1; 2 Kings 20:12, 13. See Seven Great Monarchies, Fourth Mon., chap. 8, par. 5-9.
Tiglath-Pileser was no sooner settled on the Assyrian throne than he set about the restoration of the empire. He says himself that he immediately levied an army and marched against Southern Mesopotamia (Babylonia). He attacked and defeated several of the petty princes above mentioned, taking the towns of Kur-Galzu, Sippara, or Sepharvaim, together with many other places of less consequence in the lower part of the country, and received the submission of Merodach-Baladan, who acknowledged him as suzerain, and consented to pay tribute. But there seems to have been friendly relations between Tiglath-Pileser and Nabonassar, and as Tiglath-Pileser in his third year (743 B. C.) began his Syrian, Palestinian, and Phœnician wars, which continued with but short intermission down to about 732 or 731 B. C., it thus happened that Nabonassar reigned in peace in Babylon all his days, so far at least as the king of Assyria was concerned.