banks of these to make Babylonia the most fertile land in the globe. Wealth is so easily attained, that in a few years the Pasha of Bagdad, fifty miles from Babylon, by withholding tribute from the Sultan, was enabled to have a court rivalling that of Erzeroum.

"I saw an instance of the celerity with which a town may be erected in that country. The Turkish troops were about to encamp continuously by a large Arab town called . . . . south of Babylon. The inhabitants fearing the rapacity of the troops, removed all their property, even to the door-frames and roofs of their houses, to a place about twenty miles off, on the other bank of the Euphrates. I halted at their new settlement about a fortnight afterwards, and found it assuming quite the appearance of a town. The whole soil is adapted for making bricks, which can be burnt thoroughly in the sun in a very short time. The slime for cement as well as bitumen for the same purpose, is most abundant. Labour is of course very cheap. These facilities will account for the enormous size of Babylon and Nineveh, each sixty miles in circuit, ie., covering three times the space occupied by London, and walled around with enormous walls said to have been 200 or 300 feet high. Capabilities of this kind, in the hands of Europeans, would soon lead to great results. Babylon is also admirably situated for commerce, being in a central position as respects Europe, Egypt, Syria, &c., &c."

REMARKS ON ZECHARIAH V.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EPHAH IN THE LAND OF SHINAR.

IT has now, I trust, been sufficiently proved that both the testimony of Scripture, and also the evidence of present facts, lead to the same conclusion. Both alike constrain us to say, that the predictions against Babylon have not yet received their final accomplishment. The Scripture marks the period of Babylon's fall as contemporaneous with three great concurrent events-the destruction of Antichrist—the forgiveness of Israel-and the coming of the Day of the Lord-events which are all still future. The Scripture also declares that its fall shall be most sudden; that the land of Babylon, as well as Babylon itself, shall be as desolate as those lost cities which lie beneath the waters of the Dead Sea, buried from the eye of man. That no such desolation rests at present even upon Babylon, much less upon THE LAND of Babylon, has been proved by the evidence of well authenticated facts.

There is, however, another link to be added to this chain of evidence. If human energy is to be

permitted again to make the Euphratean regions the scene of its operation-if prosperity is to be allowed for a brief moment to revisit the Land of Babylon, it might be expected that the Scriptures would somewhere allude, and that definitely, to such an event. And we find it to be so. The Scripture does speak of an event yet unaccomplished of which the scene is to be the land of Babylon. The passage to which I refer is at the close of the fifth chapter of the prophet Zechariah. It is as follows:

"Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth. And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an Ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their appearance (y) through all the earth. And behold, there was lifted up a talent (weighty piece) of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the Ephah. And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the Ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the Ephah between the earth and the heaven. Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the Ephah? And he said unto me, To build it a house in the land of Shinar; and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base."

That the event predicted in this remarkable passage remains still unaccomplished, is sufficiently evident from the fact of Zechariah's having prophesied after Babylon had received that blow under which it has gradually waned. Zechariah lived after Babylon had passed into the hands of the Persians, and since that time, it is admitted by all, that declension not "establishment" - has marked its history. From that hour to the present moment there has been no "preparation of a house," no establishment of any thing-much less of an Ephah in the land of Shinar. But an Ephah is to be established there, and a house to be built for it there, and there it is to be set firmly upon its base.

An Ephah is the emblem of commerce. It is the symbol of the merchant. In the passage before us the Ephah is described as "going forth," that is, its sovereign influence is to pervade the nations, and to imprint on them a character derived from itself, as the formative power of their institution. In other words, commerce is for a season to reign. It will determine the arrangements, and fix the manners of Israel, and of the prophetic earth. The appearance of every nation that falls under its control is to be mercantile. "He said, moreover, This is their appearance (or aspect) throughout all the earth."

It can scarcely be a strange thought to us that commerce, and the wealth and energies con

nected therewith, should supply the great formative principles of the latter day. Is there no country in which commerce rules? Have we heard nothing respecting the wondrous results expected from commerce in making nations happy; in bringing men together in ties of amity and brotherhood; in developing the resources of the earth; in making nations conscious of their mutual dependence on each other, and so effecting, by the suggestions of self-interest, a result which the Gospel (it is said) has failed to accomplish? These, and such like sayings, are continually being sounded in our ears. Nor can we say that they are altogether untrue, or that there is no wisdom in them. But it is not a wisdom that cometh from above. It is of the world - not of God. It may give to the nations prosperity for a season; but what is prosperity apart from God?

Commercial greatness has long been an idol in this western part of the prophetic earth. And now, in the present remarkable crisis of the world's history, when we see the influence that has in former ages attached either to the Crown, or to the feudal aristocracy, or to the clergy, quailing before other principles; and when former centres, around which human society has revolved, are destroyed or wrenched from their position, it is no wonder that men should anxiously inquire whether there yet remains any hope of establishing some new centre that may

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