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As thousands of Jews have done in later days, many perhaps then conformed to the habits and usages around them, and thus forsaking their own people, as well as their fathers' God, became absorbed among the nations; but it is plain, that the distinctions and separations were kept up and continued by those who feared the Lord.

Nor were the captive Jews without the means of grace; their attention was constantly kept up by a succession of prophecies and miracles, which have been already noticed. There was no temple, there were no sacrifices, but they assembled to hear the word from the prophets and teachers. They attended upon them in their houses: see Ezek. xiv. 1; xx. 1: they united in prayer and praise, and listened to instruction. Many declarations of the Holy Spirit were given, showing that this spiritual worship was acceptable to the Lord. The advantages of the means of grace were felt; and it is generally considered that these assemblies led to the regular establishment of synagogue worship on their return to Judea.

The writings of the early prophets would also be often referred to; the truth with which the sufferings had been predicted would give full confidence in those that related to deliverance. The express predictions of Isaiah, as to the destruction of Babylon, would engage their earnest attention, in a manner of which we can now form no adequate idea. The passage, Isa. xiv. 1-6, must often have been the theme of their discourse, and caused many joyful anticipations. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob,

And will yet choose Israel,

And set them in their own land:

And the strangers shall be joined with them,
And they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place:

And the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of

the Lord

For servants and handmaids:

WHILE IN BABYLON.

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And they shall take them captives, whose captives they

were;

And they shall rule over their oppressors.

And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest

From thy sorrow, and from thy fear,

And from the hard bondage

Wherein thou wast made to serve,

That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say,

How hath the oppressor ceased!

The golden city ceased!

The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked,

And the sceptre of the rulers.

He who smote the people in wrath

With a continual stroke,

He that ruled the nations in anger,

Is persecuted, and none hindereth.

The books of the prophets would also supply other and more wondrous subjects for their meditation; many conferences would be held respecting them. Often would Isaiah liii. be earnestly scanned, ver. 1-5 :

Who hath believed our report ?

And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of a dry ground:

He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him,

There is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men ;

A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:
And we hid as it were our faces from him;
He was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs,

And carried our sorrows:

Yet we did esteem him stricken,

Smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities:

The chastisement of our peace was upon him;

And with his stripes we are healed.

It was by books that Daniel ascertained the years

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STATE OF THE JEWS

of the captivity, and from the latter part of that chapter, Dan. ix., it is evident that his examination of the writings of the prophets had led him to right views of the coming of the Messiah. Others would doubtless participate in these inquiries, seeking also that knowledge which, though then seen but as through a glass darkly, made them wise unto salvation, by the same faith which animated the patriarchs, who, though they only saw the promises afar off, yet were persuaded of them, and embraced them.

There were other Scriptures which must have been felt as very applicable in their captivity. Among these the portion of Deuteronomy, now numbered as the 29th and 30th chapters, would be noticed; and the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple would lead some, at least, to "bethink themselves," and to make supplication in the land whither they were carried captives, saying "We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have committed wickedness;" and " so to return unto the Lord with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies." Many would follow the example of Daniel, exclaiming,

O holy mountain of my God,

How do thy towers in ruin lie!

How art thou riven, and strewn abroad,
Under the rude and wasteful sky!

Even the idolatries around them would be means of convincing many Jews of their own superior advantages, as well as of showing one great cause for their present state; and, while acknowledging God's justice and their own sinfulness, they would express themselves in the words of Psalm cxv. 1-9, contrasting the almighty power of Jehovah with the senseless idols before them:

Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
But unto thy name give glory,
For thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake.
Wherefore should the heathen say,
Where is now their God?

WHILE IN BABYLON.

But our God is in the heavens:
He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of men's hands.

They have mouths-but they speak not:
Eyes have they-but they see not:
They have ears--but they hear not:
Noses have they-but they smell not:
They have hands-but they handle not:
Feet have they-but they walk not:
Neither speak they through their throat.
They that make them are like unto them;
So is every one that trusteth in them.
O Israel, trust thou in the Lord:
He is their help and their shield.

Such would be the situation and the occupations of the Jews in their captivity; those among them, who felt their state and condition aright, would acknowledge the benefits of adversity, and would say with the Psalmist, It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes." It is most probable that the 119th Psalm, which so fully describes the experience of the believer, and the value of the Holy Scriptures, was written during the captivity, or shortly afterwards, with direct reference to what had been learned in those days of trial. There would, however, be many who cared for none of these things, who sought only the things of this life, and added to the' afflictions of their brethren. They are addressed in various passages of the Psalms. Psa. 1. 16-23, may be considered as applicable to them. The warning is solemn, ver. 20-22:

Thou sittest and speaketh against thy brother; Thou slanderest thine own mother's son.

These things hast thou done, and I kept silence;

Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself:

But I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine

eyes.

Now consider this, ye that forget God,

Lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

HAVING now arrived at the period when the captivity was ended, a sketch of the life of Cyrus seems desirable; it is given chiefly from Hales, who has taken much pains to compare the accounts of ancient historians. The birth of Cyrus is placed in the year B.C. 599. He was the grandson of Astyages, king of the Medes, by his daughter Mandane, who was married to Cambyses, the prince or ruler of Persia. Cyrus was brought up at home, according to the simple and hardy manner of that people, till he was twelve years of age; when he visited his grandfather, and gained the esteem and notice of the Medes by his good conduct. When he was about sixteen, he accompanied his grandfather in opposing a predatory inroad of EvilMerodach, son of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the success being chiefly owing to the valour of Cyrus. This was B.C. 584. He afterwards returned to Persia.

Astyages died B.c. 566, and was succeeded by his son Cyaxeres, (or Darius the Mede of Scripture.) Cyrus became king of Persia B.C. 559, on the death of his father Cambyses. Evil-Merodach had succeeded to the throne of Babylon B.c. 561, when recollecting his defeat by the Medes, and desirous of adding that country to the Chaldean or Assyrian monarchy, he induced the Lydians, with other nations of Western Asia, as well as the Indians in the East, to become his confederates, and prepared for an expedition against the Medes and Persians. Cyaxeres appointed his nephew Cyrus to be his general. With the combined army of the Medes and Persians he first surprised the king of Armenia,