Destruction of Babylon

    Babylon was employed by Providence for the chastisement of his people, and commissioned to carry the Jews into captivity. Babylon was guilty in executing the will of the Lord, and was providentially destroyed by him with an unexampled destruction. The Medes and Persians are sent by God to execute his vengeance on Babylon. He calls out their hosts and gives them victory, yet the Medes and Persians were excited by their own passions. "Besides," says God, " I will bring up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows, also, shall dash the young men to pieces ; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children." How awful does Providence appear here 1 Even when savage idolaters violate every dictate of humanity, they are the executors of the judgments of the Almighty. While their conduct is most horridly guilty, in the Divine sovereignty it fulfils God's will. Who can fathom this depth? In Spain acts of barbarity that disgrace humanity are constantly occurring, yet men in general see nothing of the hand of the Lord in this. The just and holy God is pouring out his vengeance, and in the reciprocal cruelties of these children of blood, God is avenging the cause of his martyrs. In God's dealings with Assyria and Babylon we ought to find a key to his Providence in his dealings with the western nations of Europe. Does not Jehovah govern the world? Is there evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? Statesmen and philosophers in their blindness may overlook the hand of God when it is outstretched over their heads, but his own children may see it as clearly as David did the sword of the destroying angel over Jerusalem.