26 



REV. ANDREW CEAIG ROBINSON, M.A._, ON 



The Greek poet Terpander invented the seven-stringed cythara about 

 the year 650 B.C., and the Assyrian bas-reliefs show it in use as 

 early as the reign of Assurbanipal (668-625 B.C.). 



Professor Langhorne Orchard complimented the lecturer very 

 heartily on the lucidity of his paper, in which he had solved a 

 difficulty. The pa^^er contained a warning against forming con- 

 clusions on insufficient evidence ; that so highly competent a scholar 

 as Professor Sayce should have fallen into the error of supposing 

 the statement "without fighting" necessarily implied that there 

 was no siege of Babylon, and no capture of it, was a warning to 

 others to be on their guard lest their conclusions should be unstable, 

 ready to be overturned by a fresh fact. 



The Chairman proposed a hearty vote of thanks to the Rev. A. 

 Craig Robinson, and called upon him to reply. 



The Lecturer ^vas very grateful for the kind reception which 

 had been given him ; he was glad that he had been able to clear up 

 a difficulty. Above all he felt grateful to God, and in every work 

 of this kind he sought His help and looked to Him for direction and 

 light. He had felt sorry to have to contest any conclusion reached 

 by Professor Sayce, for he had the highest appreciation of tlie 

 splendid services which, by his many researches, he had rendered 

 to our understanding of Holy Scripture. He fully concurred with 

 the points which Mr. Rouse had brought before them. " Son " 

 often simply means "successor"; thus on the Black Obelisk of 

 Shalmaneser, Jehu is called the "son of Omri," although so far from 

 being the son or descendant of Omri, he was the usurper who 

 brought his dynasty to an end. No doubt Mr. Rouse was correct 

 in his suggestion that the queen who came into the banquet house 

 at Belshwzzar's feast was none other than the wife of Nabonidus ; 

 also in thinking that Darius the Mecle was Cyaxeres ; the old 

 traditions mentioned by Josephus very specially connected Daniel 

 with Media. 



Subsequent Communications. 

 The Rev. Chancellor Lias writes : — 



The jNIembers of the Listitute are indebted to Mr. Robinson for 

 showing that the Annalistic Tablet, fairly interpreted, confirms, 

 instead of contradicting, the history of the fall of Babylon given in 

 the Book of Daniel and in the Greek historians. There is no 



