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catory inscriptions. These inscriptions were, for the most part, dedicated by 
the king, whose name is read Gudea, who reigned about 2,00<> years before 
Christ. We are told also of another king whose name is read Lig-Bagus, and 
who reigned also somewhere about that period. About these kings very little, 
indeed, is known, and the inscriptions therefore are naturally of very great 
interest. The piety of the Babylonian monarchs appears to have been 
something wonderful. According to their own lights they were not the 
impious people they are generally supposed to have been by the ecclesiastical 
writers and most of the Biblical writers, and it should be remembered that 
there was a great amount of bigotry everywhere. That they were cruel is, 
however, very certain. 
The Chairman. — Perhaps the Rev. Mr. Stem, who has recently joined 
the Institute, will kindly make a few remarks. 
Mr. Rassam. — Ladies and Gentlemen : Probably some of you do not know 
that the Rev. Mr. Stern was more than two years my companion in captivity 
in Abyssinia, twenty-two months of which we were in chains. He was 
prisoner two years before my time, when his right arm was chained to his 
feet, which bowed him to the ground. He also visited Mossul and Baghdad. 
Rev. H. A. Stern (who was very cordially received;. — I have been 
exceedingly pleased to listen to the interesting paper which my friend Mr. 
Rassam has just read. It has been my privilege to traverse almost the 
whole of the region Mr. Rassam has so graphically described, and I can bear 
testimony to the correctness of every one of his statements with regard to 
the country, its inhabitants, and the various difficulties the traveller has to 
encounter in visiting those interesting and ancient regions. I can also bear 
testimony as to the impression which the sight of the ruins of Babylon make 
upon the student of Scripture. Several times I have stood upon those 
ruined cities, castles, and temples which Mr. Rassam has described, and I 
can truly say, without the least exaggeration, that with the Bible in my hand, 
a kind of solemn awe has overwhelmed me as I have looked around. Wher- 
ever I gazed, whichever way I turned, mound after mound arose in regular 
succession, like the waves in a stormy ocean, each of these mounds containing 
the ruins of former greatness. I was particularly struck with the Tower of 
Belos, to which Mr. Rassam has referred. I do not know whether I am 
correct or not, but it occurred to me as I beheld that singular wall, which, 
shivered and torn, rises spectre-like from amidst the debris of buried great- 
ness and vanished glory, how minutely the words of the prophet have been 
verified : “ Her high gates shall be burned with fire.” Indeed, standing 
amidst these gigantic ruins, with the Bible in one’s hand, one realizes how 
remarkably have been fulfilled the denunciations of the prophet concerning 
the luxurious and sin-polluted Babylon. But I do not wish at this late hour 
to trespass on the indulgence of the audience ; I will, therefore, simply 
tender Mr. Rassam our best thanks for the interesting and instructive paper 
with which he has favoured us. (Cheers.) 
Mr. Rassam. — After what our respected President has stated with regard to 
