333 
“ of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of 
“ his princes; all these were carried to Babylon! And they burnt 
“ the house of God; and brake down the walls of Jerusalem, and 
“ burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the 
“ goodly vessels thereof: and them that had escaped from the 
“ sword caused he to be carried away to Babylon, where they 
“ became servants and slaves for seventy years.” There we behold 
them in a deplorable state of captivity, hanging their harps upon 
the willows of Euphrates, unable to sing the songs of Zion to their 
taunting oppressors, and suffering a cruel bondage until released by 
the decree of Cyrus: then with their millions reduced to forty-two 
thousand, they were numbered by hundreds, and by twenties, in 
their small encampment near the river Ahava: there Ezra, their 
pious leader, proclaimed a fast, and prostrated himself before the 
God of Israel, who had delivered their fathers, their kings, and 
their priests, to the sword, to captivity, and to spoil: but had now 
extended his mercy to them in the sight of the kings of Persia, 
and had left a remnant to escape, and to set up the house of God, 
and to repair the desolations of Jerusalem! Their history is still 
interesting, from the building of the second temple until the final 
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus; predicted by the Son of God, 
for their rejecting him as the Messiah. Erom that dreadful period, 
to the present day, what a spectacle do they exhibit! how fully 
accomplished are all the prophecies respecting them! they daily 
present a miracle which no sophistry can controvert, no scepticim 
elude. Scattered over the face of the earth, how awfully do their 
expatriated tribes fulfil the denunciation of their great law-giver! 
“ If thou forgettest the Lord thy God, and servest other gods, the 
