(No. 3)

In Isaiah 13:19 we have a remarkable prophecy regarding the utter ruin and desolation of ancient Babylon, written fully 700 years before Christ came, while great Babylon was at the very height of her glory.

A few years ago Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, of Robert College, Constantinople, was asked by a Turkish colonel to give him just one sure proof that the Bible was God's Book. Dr. Hamlin asked him if he had ever visited the ruins of ancient Babylon. "Yes," he replied, "and let me tell you my experience. I hired a rich Sheik and his men to take me there to hunt. We found that all manner of wild animals, owls and birds, were dwelling there amongst the ruins, so we had the best hunting of our lives. It was so good that we were annoyed when the Arabs told us they must go miles away to pitch their tents for the night. We tried to bribe them to camp right there, but they refused, saying that no Arab had ever been known to camp there, because it was haunted after dark by all manner of evil spirits, who would surely kill them or bring great evil upon them." Then Dr. Hamlin opened his Bible to Isaiah 13:19-21, and the colonel read:"And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, 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 tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the deserts shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls shall dwell there." By this one fulfilled prophecy that Turkish colonel was convinced that the Bible was a God-inspired Book. For a full account of this interview, see the "Women's Missionary Magazine" of the U. P. Church, April, 1921.

-From "The Bible:Its Christ and Modernism," by T. J. McCrossan, 213 pp. $1.00.