period is one of 171 years, is given by the description of 

 the drought and desolation which occurred in Palestine and 

 Egypt, from B.C. 612 to B.C. 549, by the Prophets Jeremiah 

 and Ezekiel. With regard to the correctness of the dates 

 given in the margins of the authorised version of the 

 English Bible, it is gratifying to know that by recent inves- 

 tigations, the dates (which are ascribed to Bishop Usher) 1 

 up to 732-33 B.C. have been confirmed by the testimony 

 of the monuments in Babylonia, Assyria, and Egypt. 2 



The drought ami tlosulation, which was to come upon the 

 people of Israel, was foretold by Jeremiah in B.C. 629 or 

 17 years before it commenced. When the drought began 

 in the year B.C. 612 which is 14 cycles of 171 years, before 

 A.D. 1782, the fact was made known that— 



"A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness" had set in. 

 (Jer. iv, 11). "Therefore the showers have been withholden, and 

 there hath been no latter rain." (Jer. in, 3). " The lion is come 

 from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way, 

 he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy 

 cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant" (Jer. iv, 7). 

 "Destruction upon destruction is cried ; for the whole land is 

 spoiled." (Jer. iv, 20). 



Some of the above references relate to the ravages about 

 to be made by the enemy "out of the north," but the 

 following beautiful verses portend the long drought then 

 just commencing, and clearly indicate the cosmic origin 

 of the phenomenon (Jer. iv, 23 to 28) B.C. 612 :— 



"I beheld the earth, and lo ! it was without form, and void; 

 and the heavens, and they had no light. 



"I beheld the mountains, and lo! they trembled, and all the 

 hills moved lightly. 



"I beheld, and lo! there Avas no man, and all the birds of the 

 heavens were fled. 



1 Encyc. Brit,, vol. XXIV, p. 17. * hoc. cit., xxvu, p. 77. 



