How does it come that mostly all the modern writers and authorities have, as if it were by common consent, agreed to reckon the Babylonian captivity from the destruction of the Temple and the city in 588 B. C., which makes the captivity only fifty years? Is it because God said to Jeremiah that the captivity will last seventy years? And therefore the devil is trying to prove that God was wrong and did not know it.

This is a very shallow scheme of the devil. No one need be deceived by it, as history cannot be wiped out, and is very clear on this point. Let us now reckon the captivity from the time it commenced, that is, from the time the first captives were made in Jerusalem and carried into Babylon. Thus the devil will be defeated and God vindicated.

Four times were captives carried from Jerusalem to Babylon before the city was destroyed. But after its destruction, only once were the scattered ones taken to Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar became king of Babylon when he conquered Necho in Charchemish, 605 B. C. The Kingdom of Juda was then paying tribute to Necho. Consequently Nebuchadnezzar went from Charchemish to Jerusalem and Jehoakim submitted under the king of Babylon. Now at this time in the year 605 B. C., Nebuchadnezzar made many prisoners in Jerusalem, among whom were Daniel and his three friends, who were carried captives into Babylon. And five or six years after that were carried three thousand more. Among them Ezekiel, then a very young man. In the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign King Jehoiachin and his family and ten thousand, eight hundred and thirty-two other captives were taken to Babylon. This is the bulk of the captives that were carried into Babylon.

When Cyrus took Babylon, in the year 538 B. C., he allowed his uncle, Darius, to reign for two years, but after that he reigned. So the first year of Cyrus was 535 B. C. Consequently we will have 605 -535-70 years—no more nor less than God said to Jeremiah in Jerusalem the time of the captivity should be.

In the tenth year of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, when

the army of Babylon was besieging the city, Zedekiah put Jeremiah into prison because he spoke the words that God gave him, saying, "The city will be given to the king of Babylon and the king carried to Babylon."

Then God said to Jeremiah in the prison, "For this city has been to me as a provocation of mine anger and my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day, that I should remove it from before my face. Though I taught them rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not harkened to receive instruction. But they set their abomination in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech, which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin."

The Children of Israel departed from God entirely. God knew all the works of the devil from the very beginning of his existence. But God never expected that His people should sacrifice their children to the devil. Therefore He said: "It never came into my mind." Now He caused them to be carried to Babylon to be purified there and to bring them to the knowledge of God again.

The devil had his prophets there in Babylon to deceive the Children of Israel, but God destroyed them. The prophets of God, Daniel and Ezekiel, brought them to the knowledge of God. After the seventy years expired, when they were at liberty to leave Babylon, they were again the people of God. Now it was clear to God that the devil would always deceive mankind, therefore, God changed His policy in dealing with the devil.

Till this time many towns, tribes and small nations were ruled by kings of their own. But hereafter there was to be only four universal empires in the world and then the devil's power will come to an end, which is the end of time. And after that the kingdom of God will be established on earth.

Three years before Nebuchadnezzar became the king of

Babylon, God notified, through Jeremiah, the prophet, the nations of His new policy in the following words: "And now have I given all these lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him, and his son and his son's son, until the very time of his land come, and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. And it shall come to pass that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and that will not put their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand."

CHAPTER V.

DANIEL IN BABYLON.

These four kingdoms are typified by the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream in the second year of his reign, which he had forgotten and Daniel revealed to him, both the dream and its meaning, as follows:

"Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.

"This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

"Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

"Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them; and the stone that

smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth."

Daniel explained the dream and said to Nebuchadnezzar :

"Thou art this head of gold, and after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron; forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things, and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

"And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

"Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter; and the dream is certain, and the interpretation therof sure."

In Josephus's translation, "The stone broke off from a mountain,' which is correct. All through the scriptures "stone" means truth-God is truth, consequently the mountain here means God. As the stone broke off from a mountain cliff, and rushing down to the plain smote the image, and it vanished. This means that when the truth comes from God the kingdoms of this world will be destroyed and the kingdom

of God will be established on the earth and will stand forever.

You will notice that God did not reveal to Daniel the time of any of these kingdoms nor when the kingdom of God would come. Only that the kingdoms would succeed each other.

In the fourth chapter of Daniel we see that King Nebuchadnezzar in his dream saw a great tree and a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven.

"He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves and scatter his fruit: let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches.

"Nevertheless, leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him."

Now the question is, what does this tree symbolize, that by the order of God was cut down, and his branches were cut off, and his leaves shaken off and the fruit scattered, so that the tree could give no shelter to any one? But his stump and roots were to be preserved with a band of iron and brass in the tender grass of the field, till seven times pass over him.

The Children of Israel are represented by the tree which commenced to grow when God led Abram from the land of Ur to the land of Canaan. This tree was grown up to a great height when the Children of Israel crossed Jordan into the promised land. The Children of Israel were then obedient to God's commandments. They were then the people of God, and are symbolized by a tree with branches, leaves and fruits. But the Children of Israel departed from God's commands again and again. Then God let their enemies rule over them; but when they returned to God He sent saviors who delivered them from the power of their enemies.

In the year 721 B. C., ten tribes of the Children of Israel