A
COLONEL in the Turkish army once asked Dr. Cyrus Hamlin for
a proof that the Bible is the Word of God. Learning that the
Colonel had been a great traveler, Dr. Hamlin said to him:
“Have you ever been in Babylon?”
“Yes,” said the Colonel, “and I will tell
you a curious incident. The ruins of Babylon abound in game
and, wishing for a week’s shooting, I engaged a Sheik,
with his followers, and went there. At sundown the Arabs,
to my amazement, began to strike their tents. I went to the
Sheik and protested most strongly; I was paying him handsomely,
and I now offered to double the amount; but nothing I could
say had any effect.
“It is not safe", said the Sheik, ‘no mortal
flesh dare stay here after sunset. Ghosts and ghouls come
out of the holes and caverns after dark, and whomsoever they
catch becomes one of themselves. No Arab has ever seen the
sun go down on Babylon!’”
Dr. Hamlin then took out his Bible and read from Isaiah 13:
19-22: “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty
of the Chaldeans’ pride, shall be as when God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited; neither shall
it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall
the Arabian pitch his tent there. . . but the wild beasts
of the desert shall lie there. . .and wolves shall cry in
their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces.”
“That is the history you have been reading,” said
the Turk.
“No,” said Dr. Hamlin, “it is a prophecy.
Those words were written when Babylon was in all her glory;
you know what Babylon is today.”
The Colonel had not a word to say in reply. Babylon was a
wonderful city. Her area was five times as large as that of
London. Her wall was at least eighty feet thick and three
hundred feet high, with five hundred gates of burnished brass.
Enclosed were lakes, parks and 625 city squares. The Prophet
Jeremiah said of her: “Though Babylon shall mount up
to heaven, and though she shall fortify the height of her
strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith
the Lord.” (Jer. 51: 53.) |
