THE RUIN OF DAMASCUS.

ISAIAH XVII.

SEVERAL Successive chapters, beginning with the thirteenth of this book, contain what are called burdens, that is, judgments pronounced upon guilty capitals and apostate lands that had become unmindful of the Rock of their strength and the God of their salvation. The last two chapters contained the burden of Moab, or the judgment upon it, ending in its total suppression and ruin. The judgment in this chapter is upon Damascus; that city celebrated for its bright sword-blades, so beautifully tempered that it has been said of them they could either divide the most exquisite lace or cleave a bar of steel asunder.

Damascus exists as the mere wreck of its departed glory, retaining magnificence enough to show what it once was, but displaying in the midst of its magnificence enough to show what wreck the sin of a people must necessarily end in.

"Damascus was long the capital of the kingdom of Damascus. It was a city in the time of Abraham, for the steward in his house, Eliezer, was said to be of Damascus. Gen. xv. 2. It is situated in a very fertile plain at the foot of Mount Libanus, or Lebanon, and is surrounded by hills. It is bounded by a river which the ancients, called Chrysorrhoas, as if it flowed with gold. This river was divided into several canals,

which were conducted to various parts of the city. It rose in the mountains of Libanus, and it is probable that the branches of that river were called Abana and Pharpar. 2 Kings v. 12. The Persian geographer says, that the plain of Damascus is one of the four paradises of the east, and it is now said that there is not in all Syria a more delightful place. "From the time of Abraham until the time of David, the Scripture says nothing of Damascus. In his time it was subdued, and brought under his authority. Towards the end of the reign of Solomon, the authority of the Jews was cast off by Rezin, aud Damascus became again independent. Jeroboam, king of Israel, again conquered Damascus and brought Syria into subjection (2 Kings xiv. 25); but after his death, the Syrians again established their independRezin became king of Damascus, and entered into an alliance with Pekah, king of Israel, and unitedly they invaded Judah, and made great havoc in its territories. Tiglath-Pileser, however, king of Assyria, came to the assistance of the king of Judah, and took Damascus, and destroyed it, and killed Rezin, and carried the Syrians into captivity beyond the Euphrates. To this event, probably, Isaiah refers in the prophecy before us. He, however, did not foretell its utter and perpetual ruin as he did that of Babylon. Damascus again recovered from its calamities. Holofernes again took it. Judith ii. 27. It is spoken of as flourishing in the time of Ezekiel, xxvii. 2. The Romans took it in the time, and by the agency of Pompey the Great, about sixty years before Christ. It afterwards fell into the hands of the Arabians. It is now a city of considerable size

ence.

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and importance under the government of the Ottoman emperors, by whom it was taken A.D. 1517. See Calmet's Dictionary,' Art. Damascus; and Vitringa, on this chapter. See also Jones' Travels' for a full description of the present state of Damascus. At present, it is a part of the Pashalic of Damascus, which extends to the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, and as far east as the Euphrates. It is under the control of Ibrahim, son of Mohammed Ali of Egypt.”

Damascus is in Syria, in the plains of Arver, named in the Book of Kings in the allusion to Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, which the Syrian captain thought as likely to heal as the Jordan, to wash in which was alike his prescription and his duty. Damascus has been recently made an aceldama by the irruption of the Druses and Moslems on the Christian population, five hundred of whom were barbarously put to death. See Times, July, 1860. .

The prophet says, "Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city; and it shall be a ruinous heap;" its ruin being the judgment inflicted on it for its many sins. Righteousness alone exalts a nation; and sin is the ruin of any people. Men begin to perceive this now, and to feel that bulwarks and battlements, and fortresses, and armies, however good and however proper in their place, are not the chief defence of a city. All material preparations for war show that no fortifications can resist the force and the impression of modern improvements in artillery; but there is something far more impregnable than forts and fortresses; that is, a city in which God's work is going on; a city which righteousness pervades ; down whose streets mercies and charities flow as a

mighty river, and from whose homes, and churches, and citadels, and palaces, the incense of thanksgiving and praise continually riseth. Now one often hopes that this our great city, the greatest in the world in all respects, shall be spared, just from what we see going on in it. There are, additional to a stated ministry, some four hundred city missionaries penetrating the subterranean depths of London; each carrying into every scene that he visits the refreshing streams from the Fountain of Life; there are ragged schools in almost every district, springing up in all directions, and furnishing out of those that have been the misery and the expense of the country accessions to the means and elements of its defence. I was told by a civil officer in the city of London, that it costs some 300l. or 4001. before you have done with a single criminal; that is, including the expense of capturing him, of trying him, and of imprisoning him; whereas in these ragged schools, you can teach a boy, give him a Christian education, and make him, by God's blessing, an accession to our army or our navy at the cost of only a few shillings in comparison. Now when one sees all that going on, one can see in our city the true elements of its defence. It seems to be a law that God never in the history of the world gave up a nation till that nation gave up him. law, feel its force. Build ramparts, navy, add to your army, by all means; do the things which common sense dictates, but add to our ragged schools, to our home and city missions; use every effort to bring the glorious Gospel into contact with the ignorant and the benighted poor. Lord Wriothesley Russell may be seen with others preach

Act upon that increase your

ing the Gospel in Covent Garden market, that is, in the streets, to all the poor and outcast who are pleased to attend. Here is the true path. To stand up in starched dignity in a cathedral and preach to the few is very poor work; but to go out and preach to the down-trodden, and show them that you are seeking to do them good, depend upon it, that is the true idea and exemplification of a Christian missionary.

The prophet gives the reason why Damascus was visited with judgments; namely, that its people had forsaken the Lord, that they had cast him off, and that they had ceased to trust in the God of their salvation, and had not been mindful of the Rock of their strength. "And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm." Then he says, 66 Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas. The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters ; but God shall rebuke them." What a lesson do we learn here! The greatest army is powerless if God breathe. The language here seems to allude to the catastrophe that overtook Sennacherib, when

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The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,
And his banners were gleaming with silver and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
Where the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee."

Ere sunset, that mighty host was scattered lying dead upon the earth. We often forget this; a great army, proud of its strength and its heroism, often forgets this. There is a power mightier than the physical, there is a force in our world greater than artillery; that is, God. He sees all, he permits, he restrains;