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For instance, in one of the inscriptions we have, he gives an account of the 

 building of one of his temples. He tells us that the roof and ceiling of that 

 temple were of cedar, and covered with gold. This is an interesting com- 

 ment on the construction of the Temple at Jerusalem ; the lavish use of gold 

 and precious stones in the building of these temples giving us a clear indica- 

 tion of the great wealth which must have been pouring into Babylon at 

 that time. (Hear, hear.) The work of rebuilding Babylon was a work that 

 had become an absolute necessity. The vengeance wreaked on that city 

 by Sennacherib, in the campaign of 694 B.C. had resulted in its almost 

 total destruction. Sennacherib says in the Bavian inscription, he swept 

 the city from end to end ; that he destroyed the houses ; threw down the 

 walls and the fortifications, and swept the debris into the river. The 

 destruction thus completely carried out was in revenge for the rebellion of 

 the Babylonians, and although he and Assur-bani-pal repaired them in such 

 imperial style, Babylon never regained its title of the Glory of the East 

 until the time of Nebuchadnezzar, who, as we find it recorded, was engaged 

 throughout his reign, which occupies nearly half the period of the later Baby- 

 lonian empire, in reconstructing the cities and temples of his kingdom. One 

 of the most valuable portions of this inscription is the prayer which comes at 

 the end. Although it is a prayer of an essentially heathen character, yet if you 

 substitute the name of Jehovah for that of Marduk, you will find phrases that 

 are identical with some of those occurring in the Psalms. Again, in the case 

 of the other inscription, which is one of the longest of the inscriptions we have 

 of Nebuchadnezzar, we have a prayer difi'ering from this in its phraseology, 

 but which is, nevertheless, the prayer of a king whose heart and life are 

 given up to the worship of one god — Marduk, the great Bel of Babylon. 

 There is a large number of inscriptions that have come to us lately, which 

 show that from a very early period throughout the whole of the religious 

 development of Babylon there must have been priests who approached very 

 nearly to monotheism in their creed. (Hear, hear.) The belief that sin was 

 an oflence which brought punishment and affliction on its perpetrators, and 

 that an act of sin was also a moral offence against God, is actually brought 

 out in those inscriptions. (Applause.) And what is more remarkable is 

 that those who had sinned did not go directly to the god they worshipped, 

 but required a mediator between themselves and their deity. That mediator 

 was the god Marduk, who went to his father, — the god who Sir Henry 

 Kawlijison maintains is that of the monotheistic priesthood, — and obtained 

 the necessary pardon. The Greeks say that Marduk was half-god half-man. 

 It would seem that the Babylonians had worked out at a very early period, 

 probably prior to the Abramic migration, a theory which in after time 

 reached a much higher stage of development in the creeds of both India and 

 Chaldea. The importance of these inscriptions leads me again to speak of 

 another matter, of which I should never be tired of talking, and that is the 

 importance of going on with this work of exploration. (Hear, hear.) These 

 inscriptions bring before us a number of stern, dry facts. Wc do not 



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