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BABYLON IN "HEAPS"

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ing not merely against the armies of men, but against the word of God, and his great dream of world empire came to an end at the battle of Waterloo. God had spoken, and "the Scripture cannot be broken.' "The word of our God shall stand forever." Isa. 40:8.

CARLYLE B. HAYNES, The Return of Jesus, pp. 23, 24.-1917.

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55. Were the prophecies in Jeremiah that Babylon would "become heaps", and in Isaiah that owls would dwell there fulfilled? BIBLE EVIDENCE.

Jer. 51:37 (B. C. 595)—And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.

Isaiah 13:19, 21-And Babylon,.... shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.... and owls shall dwell there....

SECULAR EVIDENCE.

With the conquest of Cyrus commenced the decay of Babylon, which has since been a quarry from which all the tribes in the vicinity have derived the bricks with which they have built their cities. The "great city" has thus emphatically "become heaps." Jer. 51:37. SMITH'S Bible Dictionary-Teacher's Edition, p. 72.

"Babylon shall become heaps," said the prophecy, "and owls shall dwell there." This is what Mr. Layard, the English archeologist, found on his visit in 1845: "Shapeless heaps of rubbish cover for many an acre the face of the land.... On all sides, fragments of glass, marble, pottery, and inscribed brick are mingled with that peculiar nitrous and blanched soil, which, bred from the remains of ancient habitations, checks or destroys vegetation, and renders the site of Babylon a naked and a hideous waste. Owls [which are of a large gray kind, and often found in flocks of nearly a hundred] start from the scanty thickets, and the foul jackal skulks through the furrows."

"Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon," chap. 21, p. 413. W. A. SPICER, Our Day in the Light of Prophecy, p. 35. 56. Has the prophecy in Isaiah 13:20 in regard to the Arab and his tent been fulfilled?

BIBLE EVIDENCE.

Isa. 13:19, 20-And Babylon,.. shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.

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SECULAR EVIDENCE.

...sure word of prophecy.

Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, the venerable missionary and educator, tells the following story. While he was in Constantinople, soon after the Crimean War, a colonel in the Turkish army called to see him and said: "I want to ask you one question. What proof can you give me that the Bible is what you claim it to be the Word of God?"

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STORY OF A TURKISH COLONEL

Dr. Hamlin evaded the question and drew the officer into conversation, during which he learned that his visitor had travelled a great deal, especially in the East in the region of the Euphrates. 'Were you ever in Babylon?" asked the doctor. "Yes, and that reminds me of a curious experience I had there," replied the visitor,...

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"I am very fond of sport, and having heard that the ruins of Babylon abounded in game I determined to go there for a week's shooting. Knowing that it was not considered safe for a man to be there except in the company of several others and money being no object to me I engaged a sheik with his followers to accompany me for a large sum. We reached Babylon and pitched our tents. A little before sundown I took my gun and strolled out to have a look around. The holes and caverns among the mounds which cover the ruins are infested with game, which, however, is rarely seen except at night. I caught sight of one to two animals in the distance, and then turned my steps toward our encampment, intending to begin my sport as soon as the sun had set. What was my surprise to find the men striking the tents. I went to the sheik and protested most strongly.....

"Nothing I could say, however, would induce him to remain. ‘It isn't safe,' he said, 'no mortal flesh dare stay here after sunset. In the dark ghosts, goblins, ghouls, and all sorts of things come out of the holes and caverns, and whoever is found here is taken off by them and becomes one of themselves.' Finding I could not persuade him, I said, 'Well, as it is, I'm paying you more than I ought to, but if you'll stay I'll double it.' 'No,' he said, 'I couldn't stay for all the money in the world. No mortal flesh has ever seen the sun go down on Babylon and lived to tell the tale. But I want to do what is right by you. We'll go off to a place about an hour distant and come back at day-break.' And go they did and my sport had to be given up.'

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"As soon as he had finished," said Dr. Hamlin, "I took my Bible, and read from the thirteenth chapter of Isaiah: 'And Babylon,.. shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.... neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there: .... but wild beasts of the desert shall be there: and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures: and owls shall dwell there,....

"That's it exactly,' said the Turk when I had finished, "but that's history you have been reading.' No," answered Dr. Hamlin, "it's prophecy. Come, you're an educated man. You know that the Old Testament was translated into Greek about 300 years before Christ." He acknowledged that it was. "And the Hebrew was given at least 200 years before that?" "Yes." "Well, wasn't this written when Babylon was in its glory, and isn't it prophecy?" "I'm not prepared to give you an answer now, ," he replied, "I must have time to think it over." "Very well, do so, and come back when you're ready and give me your answer, " said Dr. Hamlin. "From that day to this I have never seen him," continued the doctor, "but what an unexpected testimony to the truth of the Bible in regard to the fulfillment of prophecy did that Turkish officer give!"

D. L. MOODY, One Thousand and One Thoughts From My Library, pp. 369371.

STONES OF BABYLON

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57. Has a prophecy in Jeremiah about the stones of Babylon been fulfilled in a wonderful way?

BIBLE EVIDENCE.

Jeremiah 51:26 (595 B. C.)-And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the Lord.

SECULAR EVIDENCE.

"There is one fact," says Mr. Rassam, "connected with the destruction of Babylon and the marvelous fulfillment of prophecy, which struck me more than anything else, which fact seems never to have been noticed by any traveler; and that is the nonexistence, in the several modern buildings in the neighborhood of Babylon, of any sign of stone which had been dug up from its ancient ruins. It seems that in digging for old materials, the Arabs used the bricks for building purposes, but always burnt the stone thus discovered for lime, which fact wonderfully fulfills the divine words of Jeremiah, namely, 'And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate forever, saith the Lord.'".

Why have not the infidels, whether in the church or out, who are so eager to disprove God's word, gone and inhabited Babylon? God's very words on multiplied millions of Bible pages stand a challenge to them to prove that the verdict passed on Babylon is untrue. But despite the pratings of those who say prophecy is history written after the event, no one has ever yet claimed that this prediction was written in this century; yet if their contention be true, the prophecy of the desolation of Assyria and Babylonia must have been written in recent years.

EARL ALBERT ROWELL (A Converted Infidel), The Bible in the Critics' Den, pp. 111, 112.

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