Queen of the golden east! afar
Thou shon'st Assyria's morning star:
Till God, by righteous anger driven,
Expelled thee from thy place in heaven.
For false and treacherous was thy ray,
Like swampy lights that lead astray;
And o'er the splendour of thy name,
Rolled many a cloud of sin and shame.

For ever fled, thy princely shrines
Rich with their wreaths of clustering vines,
Priest, censer, incense-all are gone
From the deserted altar stone.
Belshazzar's halls are desolate,

And vanished their imperial state;

E'en as the pageant of a dream,

That floats unheard on memory's stream.

Fallen is Babylon! and o'er

The silence of her hidden shore,

Where the gaunt satyr shrieks and sings,
Hath mystery waved his awful wings:
Concealed from eyes of mortal men,
Or angels' more pervading ken,
The ruined city lies unknown;
Her site to all but God unknown.

ARTAXERXES LONGIMANUS-ESTHER MADE QUEENEZRA CONDUCTS THE SECOND LARGE DIVISION OF THE JEWS TO JERUSALEM-REFORMATION EFFECTED-THE CANON OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES ARRANGED.

ARTAXERXES LONGIMANUS began to reign B.C. 464. The commencement of his reign was unpromising to the Jews. The rebuilding of Jerusalem was stopped by an application from Rehum, Shimshai, and others, in the name of the Samaritan colonies and officers. They alleged that Jerusalem was of old a rebellious and bad city, hurtful to kings and princes, exciting seditions, on which account it had been destroyed, but the Jews were now rebuilding it. A decree was issued, commanding that the work should be stopped; on receiving which, the adversaries went to Jerusalem and made the Jews to cease by force and by

power. The particulars are given Ezra iv. 6-24, where the narrative is introduced as a parenthesis in the account of the former stoppage of the work. Artaxerxes may have been disposed to this interference, from the Egyptians having revolted on hearing of the death of Xerxes. If Jerusalem were fortified, he might think that the Jews would be inclined to throw off the Persian yoke, which would be a hinderance to any Persian army proceeding against Egypt.

It is generally considered that Artaxerxes Longimanus was the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther. From thence we learn, that in the third year of his reign, being established on his throne, he made a great festival at Susa, or Shusan, in Persia, which became the seat of the government, while Babylon was neglected. This festival lasted several months; it was marked by riotous excesses. On one occasion, the inebriated monarch required his queen, Vashti, to come forth from the retirement of her palace, to show her beauty to the princes and the people, in their drunken revelry. On her refusal, the royal counsellors represented that it was a dangerous precedent for the queen to disobey the king, and for a wife to disregard the commands of her husband. Vashti was deprived of her rank, while the most beautiful young females that could be found were selected, from among whom the king might choose one to supply her place. Esther, a Jewish orphan, brought up by her uncle Mordecai, was chosen. The narrative shows the degraded state of females in the East, also the manner in which families there are liable to be interfered with, and their happiness destroyed, by the mandate of an Eastern despot.

The parentage and country of the new queen does not appear to have been known to Artaxerxes, when his heart was first inclined to favour the Jews. The Egyptian revolters having been subdued, it was desirable to bring Judea into a more settled state. Some circumstance, which is not known, induced one

of rank and influence among the Jews to take up the cause of his nation. This was Ezra, a scribe and priest of the law, a descendant of Aaron, and grandson or great grandson of Seraiah the high priest, who was slain when Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, consequently Ezra was of note among the Jews. He was sent to Judea, with full powers and liberal contributions from the king and his counsellors, in addition to those from the Jews remaining at Babylon, to be expended in adorning the temple, and supplying its services. He had authority to appoint magistrates and judges, also to take with him any Jews inclined to return to Jerusalem. This commission is recorded at length, Ezra vii. 11-26. Ezra made the request, but he ascribes the compliance of Artaxerxes directly to Him who turneth the hearts of kings withersoever he will, as the rivers of water, Prov. xxi. 1. Ezra also himself sought for strength from on high, to bear him up in this arduous undertaking, Ezra vii. 10, 27, 28:

For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.

Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem: and hath extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counsellors, and before all the king's mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.

Artaxerxes evidently had referred to the former decrees, especially that of Cyrus; he did not hesitate to avow this in his own decree, Ezra vii. 23, "Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be diligently done for the house of the God of heaven : for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons ?" The royal treasures were to supply whatever might be wanting for this work. Ezra gathered a company of one thousand seven

hundred and fifty-four persons. Having appointed a station for assembling, Ezra viii. 15, which is usual before the departure of a caravan, or large body of travellers, in the East, he found none of the Levites present. He therefore sent to a place in which some of them dwelt, and induced thirty-eight to join his party. Ezra made a further preparation for his journey, by observing a solemn fast.

Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him. So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was intreated of us.

Then we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go unto Jerusalem: and the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such as laid in wait by the way.

Let it be remembered, the way they had to pass