Earlier text: Workers with ChristThe Empire of Grecia.
By A. T. J.
THE BATTLES OF GRANICUS, ISSUS, AND ARBELA.
ABOUT seventy-five or eighty miles from the place where Alexander landed in Asia Minor, the river Granicus pours into the Sea of Marmora. There, early in his fourth day's march (May 22, B. C. 334, Haydn's Dictionary of Dates), he found the Persian army drawn up in battle array, on the eastern bank of the river. "On approaching the river he made his preparations for immediate attack." Alexander's forces having arrived at the brink of the river, the two armies stood for some time "watching each other in anxious silence." Then Alexander gave the word of command, and with wild war-shouts, and sound of trumpets, his troops rushed into the river and across, and in a little while had gained the opposite bank. The Persian army was annihilated. Of the Persian troops about 20,000 were killed, and about 2,000 were taken prisoners; while of Alexander's soldiers there were only 115 killed, and about 1150 wounded. "No victory could be more decisive or terror-striking than that of Alexander" at the Granicus. "There remained no force in the field to oppose him. . . . Such exploits, impressive even when we read of them now, must at the moment when they occurred have acted most powerfully upon the imagination of contemporaries."—Grote, chap. 93, par. 39-50; Rollin, Hist. Alexander, sec. 3, par. 10-15. "The battle of Granicus threw open to Alexander the whole of Asia Minor. There was no force left in the entire country that could venture to resist him, unless protected by walls. Accordingly, the Macedonian operations for the next twelve months, or nearly the whole space that intervened between the battles of the Granicus and of Issus, consisted of little more than a series of marches and sieges."—Seven Great Monarchies, Fifth Mon., chap. 7, par. 195. Encyc. Brit., art. Macedonian Empire. Alexander gave his army a few months' rest at Gordium, the capital of Phrygia, in the latter part of the winter and early spring of 333 B. C. Having received re-enforcements to the amount of 3,650 troops, he set out, the latter part of May, to the southeastward through Phrygia, Cappadocia, and Cilicia. In the year that had passed since the battle of the Granicus, Darius had succeeded in gathering together a vast host, numbering at the very lowest estimate 311,200, and at the highest 600,000; the weight of authority favors placing the real number at about 500,000. Accompanied by his mother, his wife, his concubines, his children, and all the personal attendants of every description that pertain to the palace and the harem, Darius in person led his army out of Babylon just about the time that Alexander, with his little band of less than 40,000, left Gordium. In the camp, all the luxury of the palace was maintained by the king and his Persian grandees. "The baggage was enormous; of gold and silver alone, we are told that there was enough to furnish load for 600 mules and 300 camels. A temporary bridge being thrown over the Euphrates, five days were required to enable the whole army to cross. . . . At the head of such an overwhelming host, Darius was eager to bring on at once a general battle."—Grote, chap. 93, par. 18, 19. Alexander, being by a fever delayed at Tarsus ("no mean city," by the way), the two armies did not meet till November, and then at Issus, where was fought the second battle between Grecia and Persia. The city of Issus, near which the battle was fought, lay at the extreme northeastern point of the Mediterranean Sea. Here, between the base of the mountains and the sea, on the borders of the Gulf of Issus, was a tract of flat land, nowhere more than a mile and a half wide. In this narrow space, on the north bank of the River Pinarus, Darius wedged 200,000 men. Of course this made his ranks so deep that the rest of his army had no room to act, and so they remained, to the number of about 250,000, useless and unformed in the rear. On the south side of the River Pinarus, Alexander formed his forces, so in this position the Pinarus flowed between the two armies as did the Granicus at the battle that was fought there. The battle began by the advance of Alexander. Leaving 300 of his cavalry to hold in check 20,000 Persians that threatened his right flank, he moved onward his whole line at a slow pace till it came within bow-shot of the Persian front, and then gave the command to charge. Alexander with the right of his line charged Darius's left, which "instantly broke and fled." Alexander's left was not so successful, however,—their part of the bank of the river was steep, and defended by stakes, and besides this, the Persian right showed a stubborn resistance; nor was it until Alexander had returned from the rout of Darius's left, and attacked in flank the remaining forces, that his own left gained any headway; then, however, that part of the Persian line was driven back, and the rout became general. Then the vast multitude confined in so narrow a space, horses, and chariots, and men, rushing headlong hither and thither in their frantic efforts to escape, only made the slaughter more dreadful. One hundred and ten thousand of the Persian army were slain, and 40,000 were made prisoners. Among the prisoners was Darius's whole family. He himself managed to gather up 4,000 of the flying troops, and made no tarrying until he put the Euphrates between himself and Alexander. Besides these, 8,000 hired Greeks held together in one body, and made their way to Tripolis on the coast of Phenicia, where they found the vessels that had brought them over; these they seized and escaped to Cyprus, and then to Egypt. And that was all that was left of the immense host that Darius brought to the battle of Issus. No attempt was made to rally or re-form the flying fugitives, and so the second time a Persian army was annihilated by Alexander; this time with a loss to himself of only 450 killed, and 504 wounded. "No victory recorded in history was ever more complete in itself, or more far-stretching in its consequences, than that of Issus." As the battle of Granicus gave to Alexander all Asia Minor, so the battle of the Issus laid at his feet Egypt and all of Asia west of the Euphrates.—Grote, chap. 93, par. 1-33; "Seven Great Monarchies," Fifth Mon., chap. 7, par. 196-202; Rollin, "Hist. Alexander," sec. 5. But Darius was yet alive and free, and one more blow must be struck, and only one, before the proud Persian ascendancy is destroyed. It was "twenty months" after the battle of Issus before Alexander set his forces in motion toward the interior of the Persian Empire. By this time—about June 331—Darius had succeeded in gathering together at Arbela, an army of more than a million of men. "The forces which he had collected for the final struggle comprised—besides Persians, Babylonians, Medes, and Susianians from the center of the empire—Syrians from the banks of the Orontes, Armenians from the neighborhood of Ararat, Cappadocians and Albanians from the regions bordering on the Euxine, Cadusians from the Caspian, Bactrians from the Upper Oxus, Sogdians from the Jaxartes, Arachosians from Cabul, Arians from Herat, Indians from Punjab, and even Sacæ from the country about Kashgar and Yarkand, on the borders of the Great Desert of Gobi. Twenty-five nations followed the standard of the great king, and swelled his vast army, which amounted (according to the best authorities) to above a million of men. Every available resource that the empire possessed was brought into play. Besides the three arms of cavalry, infantry, and chariots, elephants were, for perhaps the first time in the history of military science, marshalled in the battle-field, to which they added an unwonted element of grotesqueness and savagery."—Seven Great Monarchies, Fifth Mon., chap. 7, par. 207 (11th from the end). Alexander crossed the Euphrates at Thapsacus (the modern Deir); marched northeastward and crossed the Tigris about thirty-five miles above the site of Nineveh; turned to the right and marched for four days down the Tigris. The fourth day he met a body of Persian cavalry, which he scattered, taking some prisoners from whom he learned that Darius with his whole army was only a few miles away. At this he halted and gave his army a rest of four days. While it was yet dark, the morning of the fifth day he advanced with the intention of attacking Darius at break of day. However, when he reached the plain immediately in the Persian front, he saw that some of the ground was freshly broken, and fearing that pitfalls had been prepared for his army, he delayed the attack, and spent the day in carefully surveying the field. "The spot predetermined for a pitched battle, was the neighborhood of Gaugamela, near the river Bumodus, about thirty miles west of Arbela, towards the Tigris, and about as much southeast of Mosul, a spacious and level plain, with nothing more than a few undulating slopes, and without any trees. It was by nature well adapted for drawing up a numerous army, especially for the free manœuvres of cavalry, and the rush of scythed chariots; moreover the Persian officers had been careful beforehand to level artificially such of the slopes as they thought inconvenient. [This was what caused Alexander to suspect pitfalls.] In the ground, there seemed everything to favor the operation both of the vast total, and the special forces, of Darius; who fancied that his defeat at Issus had been occasioned altogether by his having adventured himself in the narrow defiles of Cilicia, and that on open and level ground, his superior numbers must be triumphant. For those who looked only to numbers, the host assembled might well inspire confidence, for it is said to have consisted of 1,000,000 of infantry, 40,000 cavalry, 200 scythed chariots, and fifteen elephants."—Grote, chap. 93, par. 72, 73. The next morning Alexander marshalled his army, consisting of 40,000 infantry, and 7,000 cavalry. As at Issus, Alexander led the right and Parmenio the left. In fact the whole conflict was hardly more than a repetition of the battle of Issus. Alexander defeated the Persian left, and got near enough to hurl a spear at Darius which killed his charioteer. At this the cry was raised that Darius had fallen, the Persian ranks at once grew unsteady, and presently began to break and fly. Darius, seeing this, and being in imminent danger from Alexander, yielded to the general alarm and fled, and with him, fleeing in every direction, went the whole of the left and center of his army. The Persian right, however, stoutly withstood Parmenio until Alexander had routed the rest of the army, and was recalled to attack these in flank, then, seeing that all hope of success was gone, they too quitted the field. Then the terror began. The Persians hurrying to cross the river Zab, were pursued by the conquerors, who slew the unresisting fugitives, till they were weary of slaughter. "The prodigious army of Darius was all either killed, taken, or dispersed, at the battle of Arbela. . . . The miscellaneous contingents of this once mighty empire, such at least, among them, as survived, dispersed to their respective homes, and could never be again mustered in mass. The defeat of Arbela was in fact the death-blow of the Persian Empire. It converted Alexander into the great king, and Darius into nothing better than a fugitive pretender."—Grote, chap. 93, par. 88. He that will not be ruled by the rudder must be ruled by the rock. He who will not take counsel when it is given, must take trouble when it is sent. He who mocks at admonition, rejects advice, hates instruction, and despises reproof, will come at last to reap what he has sown, and to suffer those sorrows which are the lot of the rash, the inexperienced, the head-strong, and the disobedient. My young friend just starting on the voyage of life, you must take your choice. You must be ruled by something. Shall it be by the rudder, or by the rock? Will you take the way of sin and darkness, and "mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, and say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me" (Prov. 5:11-13); or will you heed the voice of wisdom, which crieth in the streets, obey the commands of God, follow the teachings of his word, and prove by glad experience that wisdom's "ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace." Reader, you must be ruled either by the rudder or by the rock. Which shall it be?—Sel. Secret Societies—Are They Lawful to the Christian?
By H. H. Hinman
THERE is an aspect of this question of organized secrecy that seems largely to have escaped public observation. It is that all such societies are incorporated by the State, are "bodies corporate and politic" in the legal sense of the word; and yet they deny to the State not only all right of control, but all right of inspection. The State which created them may not know what they are nor what they do. No officer of the law may know the character and conduct of a Masonic lodge or other secret society, unless he has been regularly initiated, and taken the oath, or pledge of inviolable secrecy. This denial of the right of inspection belongs alike to all institutions having a covenant of secrecy. The secrets of the Mormon Endowment House, though often demanded by the courts, have never been disclosed to any judicial investigation, and the right of the American people to have positive and official knowledge of that institution is not only denied, but the authority of the nation set at defiance. In principle this is true of all. Nor do secret orders have greater respect for the rights of the church. Each member of a Christian church is answerable to it for all of his conduct, in which the interests of morality, religion, or the general welfare of the church is concerned. Hence it follows that the church has a right to inquire into the conduct of its members in all these respects. But the covenant that he has taken in the lodge may not be disclosed to the church. For his conduct there, and as a member of the secret order, he is held answerable to the order and not to the church. There may be every reason to believe that such conduct is wholly unchristian, and that it violates the solemn covenant he has made with the church, yet the actual facts cannot be investigated. A Masonic lodge would most surely insist on knowing whether one of its members had violated Masonic law, in any meeting of the church of which he was a member, yet it would sternly deny to the church the corresponding right to know whether one of its members had violated Christian morality in the lodge. It follows therefore, 1. That the claim of inviolable secrecy on the part of any institution or order chartered by the State is not only exceptional, being denied to all banks, insurance companies, and other business corporations, but is inconsistent with the rights of the Government and the supremacy of the civil law, and hence such charters should be withheld or withdrawn. 2. It follows that for members of a Christian church to be members also of a secret order, is to be unequally yoked, owning higher obligations to such orders than to the church, since the lodge may know what he does in the church, but the church cannot inquire what he does in the lodge. 3. That membership in a secret order is inconsistent with the purposes for which the church was instituted, and with worthy church membership. The primary object of church fellowship is watchcare. The covenant of every church includes this, and makes it the duty of every member of the church to watch over and kindly admonish his brethren, and to submit to such watchcare. It is also the right and duty of the church to investigate any charges made against any one of its members, and to defend them if innocent. It is well known that the opponents of free-masonry make serious charges against the morality of the order, and that they demand investigation before the church, yet members of the order are not permitted to plead to such indictment, or to disclose any of the facts in reference to the things thus charged. Surely this is not in harmony with the objects of the church.—H. H. Hinman, in Bible Banner. A Word in Season, How Good It Is.
By Bell V. Chisholm
"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment." It was but a small thing, this repeating of a single verse among a score of others; but, to shy Bessy Hildreth it was a real cross. She had just come out on the Lord's side, and only the fear of denying her Master could have given her courage to open her lips, in the little Sunday evening prayer-meeting. Frightened at her own trembling tones, she shrank closer into the dark corner where she sat, and wished, oh! so fervently, that she had not attempted to speak at all. Had she not been trying to still the wild beating of her own heart, she would have noticed the startled look that came into a pair of dark eyes just opposite her. Ah, poor little, timid Bessy! could you have known that it was this very tremor in your voice that fastened the attention of careless Duncan Forbes on the solemn words you uttered, you would not have longed to recall them, or to have vainly wished them unsaid. Poor light-hearted Duncan had been familiar with the text since childhood, and had it not been for the quivering lips that repeated the words to-night, it would have been unheeded, as were the thirty other verses that had been spoken in his hearing. Hymns were sung, and fervent prayers ascended to Heaven, before the meeting closed; but Duncan heard nothing, except the terrifying words, "After this the Judgment." In the silence of his own chamber, the voice still rang in his ears; and when he courted sleep, visions of the great white throne passed vividly before him. The morning light brought no sweet peace, neither did the business of the day dispel the gloom that had settled upon his spirits. He read his Bible, and tried to pray, but twenty-one years of sin and folly passed in solemn review before him, appalling him with their magnitude, and utterly choking the petitions already formed in his heart. Almost in despair, he slipped quietly into the prayer-meeting the next Sunday evening, and before its close he startled the little praying band by requesting them to intercede for him at the throne of grace. He stated what had caused his awakening, and humbly asked for aid and direction. Before the close of that memorable meeting he had found rest to his soul. With the love of Jesus fresh in his heart he persuaded others, his dear companions and friends, to seek the one thing needful. Soon souls were anxiously inquiring the way heavenward; and a precious revival, such as the village of Melville had never enjoyed, followed, and, in the end, more than sixty new converts dated their new life to Bessy Hildreth's faithful performance of duty. "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knowest not whether shall prosper."—Bell V. Chisholm, in S. S. Times. BLESSED word—power. "All power is given unto me, in Heaven and in earth." Pray on, Christian, never doubting. Say not, It cannot be; the hardened husband or brother or son cannot be turned, cannot be made thoughtful, and tender, and humble, and be converted. It may be; with God all things are possible. More willing than parents is God to give. His love is higher than that of the most tender parents, as the heavens are above the earth. He is able to save unto the uttermost; he is not willing that any should perish. Power belongeth unto God. They shall be willing in the day of thy power. Jesus is a great king. His power ruleth over all. Like Jacob, take no denial. In answer to wrestling intercession, Esau shall relent, and be melted into love. Mountains shall be plucked up. The Red Sea shall be opened. The victory is secure. Satan fell as lightning. As Jesus expired he said, "It is finished." His last words as he ascended were, "All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations." Our side is always the stronger while we serve Christ and seek his glory. Be strong; yea, be strong in the Lord. Pray and watch and work, in the faith of promised power.—N. Y. Observer. The Daily Study of Scripture
Reading the Scriptures, next to prayer, is essential to the maintenance of the life and power of true godliness in the soul. Searching the Scriptures is a duty which no Christian can neglect without great spiritual loss. There is a power in the divine word that enlightens, quickens, restrains, comforts, and influences the mind as nothing else can do. The desultory reading of the Scriptures is better than their entire neglect, but the greatest benefit is derived from reading the Bible consecutively and statedly, noting the connection between its different parts. In this way the mind is brought permanently under the influence of the truth, and it becomes as a light to our path and as a lamp to our feet. The soul needs daily nourishment as well as the body, and for this purpose we should come daily to God not only in prayer but in the perusal of his word, that we may receive that divine aid that will strengthen us for every duty and trial. A neglected Bible is a sure indication of a neglected soul. The psalmist could say, "Thy word have I hid in my heart." Happy is that man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates therein day and night.—Sel. An Inspired Prescription for These Times
READ slowly and carefully 2 Tim. 4:1-5: "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." This is an inspired prescription for just such times as the present.—Christian Standard. Establishing Ourselves in the Truth
We shall not establish ourselves in the truth by hovering constantly about the obscure places in the divine revelation, nor by magnifying the doubtful questions suggested by every practical system of faith when applied to extreme cases. NOTES ON THE INTERNATIONAL LESSON.
By A. T. J.
THE subject of this lesson is, "The Temple Repaired," but before we notice that, we shall have to inquire how it became necessary that the temple should be repaired. Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, married Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and this carried into the kingdom of Judah all the corruptions of the house of Israel; for, says the record, "He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab; for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife." The Arabians came and slew all of Jehoram's sons except Ahaziah, the youngest; Jehoram died; and Ahaziah went down to see Joram of Israel just at the time when Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, and Jehu slew him with the princes of the house of Ahab. And even while he lived "his mother was his counselor to do wickedly." WHEN Athaliah learned that Ahaziah was dead, "she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah." But Jehoshabath, the sister of Ahaziah, was the wife of Jehoiada the priest, and she secured Joash, who was about a year old, and fled with him to the temple, where she hid him and his nurse, and there he was kept under the care of Jehoiada the priest, six years. This left Athaliah, the daughter of Jezebel, in authority in the kingdom of Judah. She, being the true daughter of her mother, forced the worship of Baal upon the people of Judah as her mother had forced it upon Israel. She built a house for Baal, and robbed the house of the Lord of its ornaments and decorations and wealth, to furnish the house of Baal. When Joash was seven years old, Jehoiada laid plans to proclaim him king. "And he set all the people, every man having his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the temple to the left side of the temple, along by the altar and the temple, by the king round about. Then they brought out the king's son, and put upon him the crown, and gave him the testimony, and made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, God save the king." "Now WHEN Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into the house of the Lord; and she looked, and, behold, the king stood at his pillar at the entering in, and the princes and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and sounded with trumpets, also the singers with instruments of music, and such as taught to sing praise. Then Athaliah rent her clothes, and said, Treason, treason." Then Athaliah was slain, "and Jehoiada made a covenant between him, and between all the people, and between the king; that they should be the Lord's people. Then all the people went to the house of Baal, and brake it down, and brake his altars and his images in pieces, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars." Thus Baal was destroyed out of Judah also. THEN under the guidance and wise counsel of Jehoiada, Joash carried forward the good work of reformation, and gave orders that the temple that had been rifled by Athaliah should be repaired. But, although the people were willing and gave of their means for the purpose, it seems that the priests, to whom was given the charge, were unfaithful; for the donations continued twenty-three years, yet nothing was done for the house of the Lord. It appears that the priests who had charge of the matter had gone so far as to even keep for themselves the means dedicated to the house of the Lord. "Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house. And the priests consented to receive no more money of the people, neither to repair the breaches of the house." THEN "Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of the Lord; and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the Lord. And it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags, and told the money that was found in the house of the Lord. And they gave the money, being told, into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of the Lord; and they laid it out to the carpenters and builders, that wrought upon the house of the Lord. And to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewed stone to repair the breaches of the house of the Lord, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it." THIS time they found honest men to do the business—so strictly honest, indeed, that it was not necessary to reckon with them, for we read, "They reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to be bestowed on workmen; for they dealt faithfully." WE cannot be any too careful with the house of the Lord. The Lord himself has great care for the place of his worship, and we are doing his will when we have a care for it. Once as David sat in his house, Nathan was sitting by, and David spoke to him, saying, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains." That very night the Lord appeared to Nathan, and told him to go and tell David that he should not build the house himself, but that his son should build it, and also to say to David, "Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house. . . . And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee; thy throne shall be established forever." 2 Sam. 7:1-16. Thus we see that a thought of David's, concerning the house of the Lord, is rewarded with eternal glory. There is a thought that bears fruit to all eternity. AT another time the house of the Lord was desolate, and the people regarded it carelessly, although they themselves dwelt in good houses. And at the same time they made excuses that they could not build the house because they were not doing well financially. Their crops failed; their money seemed to slip away unawares; and their clothing did not wear as well as it ought. But the very thing which they made an excuse for not building the house was the result of their not building it. Then the Lord said, "Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house." Haggai 1:7-9. AGAIN we say, The Lord has a care for the place of his worship, and he not only wants his people to have a care for it, but he richly rewards such care. But such a care as he regards is not that kind in which the place of his worship is fitted up for theatricals, operatic airs, feasts, and festivals.