his evil angels to stir up the rulers of this world against the Church of Christ. How constantly this threefold process goes on in the present day in all our Missions in heathen lands, the history of Missions declares. Where true prayer was unheard before, one or two Children of God begin to pray. The rulers of the land are stirred up to oppose the work of God; but they who are with us are more than they who are against us. Seldom indeed is the veil drawn aside as it was for Daniel, and the praying Child of God enabled to see that his wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but "against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places." (Eph. vi. 12, Rev. Ver.) "He" (who says to the missionary, "Lo, I am with you all the days ") said, "O Daniel, man greatly beloved from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia," &c. (Dan. x. 11-14.)

Cyrus seems to have died, B.C. 529, in the seventh year after the return of the Jews, and he was succeeded by his son Cambyses, the Ahasuerus of Ezra iv. 6, who was asked to alter Cyrus' policy towards the Jews, but apparently declined from all interference. Cambyses reigned, it is said, seven years and five months. He had put to death his own brother Smerdis, and while he was carrying on war in Egypt, a Magian priest, Gomatis or Gaumatu by name, professing to be the murdered Smerdis, rebelled against Cambyses, and obtained quiet possession of the throne, B.C. 522. Cambyses, hearing of the usurpation of his throne by the Pseudo-Smerdis, committed suicide. Pseudo-Smerdis, who is thought to be the Artaxerxes of Ezra iv. 11-22, reversed the policy of Cyrus with respect to the people of God, and forbade the building of the temple. He is said to have treated other subjectnations with kindness, but to have been haughty and distant to the Persians. His conduct toward the people of God brought down on him the wrath of the Almighty, and his way of treating the Persians stirred up against him a revolt, which was headed by Darius, the son of Hystaspes, a prince of the royal blood. The Pseudo-Smerdis, having fled from his capital and thrown himself into a fort in Media, was pursued, attacked, and slain. His reign lasted only seven months. "The first efforts of Darius were directed to the re-establishment of the Oromasdian religion in all its purity. He rebuilt the temples which Gomatis had destroyed."

Appealed to in his second year by the Jews, he made a decree, and search was made for the edict of Cyrus among the royal treasures, and it was found in Achmetha, the modern Hamadan, which had been the capital of the Median kings. He not only confirmed the edict of Cyrus, but assisted the work of rebuilding the temple by grants from his revenues, so that it was finished in the sixth year of his reign. (Ezra vi. 1—15.) He built magnificent palaces at Persepolis and Shushan. Under him the Medo-Persian empire reached the zenith of its glory. He died B.C. 485, and was succeeded by his son Xerxes, the

Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther. The story of Xerxes' expedition against Greece, and ignominious defeat at Salamis, is so well known from profane history, and his divorce of the beautiful Vashti, and marriage with the lovely Jewish maiden Esther, is so familiar to all students of Bible History, that there is no need of more than a passing allusion to them here. After a reign of twenty years and a half he was slain at night, in his bed-chamber, by the chief of his bodyguard Artabanus, and was succeeded, after an interregnum of about seven months, by his son Artaxerxes Longimanus, B.C. 465.

Whether the mother of Artaxerxes was, as the Persian historians say, the Jewish Esther, or, according to others, Amestris, the daughter of Otanes, it seems clear that the influence of Esther and Mordecai was overruled by God to make him the firm friend of Ezra and Nehemiah, and through them of the people of God. In the seventh year of his reign, B.C. 458, Ezra, "the ready scribe of the God of Israel," applied for leave to go up to Jerusalem, and "the king granted him all his request, according to the good hand of his God upon him." Cyrus had sent back by the hands of Zerubbabel and Jeshua the holy vessels which had been carried away from the temple of Jehovah, and Artaxerxes gave other vessels of gold and silver to Ezra, a free-will offering for the temple. Many wealthy Babylonians followed the example of the monarch, and made costly offerings of gold and silver. And Artaxerxes Longimanus wrote an order to all the governors through whose provinces Ezra should pass, to supply him with all things needful for his journey.

The edict of Cyrus, king of Persia, for rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem marks a remarkable era in the history of the Jews and of the world. The edict of Artaxerxes Longimanus to restore the city of Jerusalem and rebuild its walls, which Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed, also marks another remarkable era. It is from this edict that the commencement of Daniel's weeks must be fixed. But there is some little difficulty in discovering the exact date of the edict. In Dan. ix. 24, 25, 26, it is thus written, "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy; know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks the streets shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself."

There is no doubt that "the going forth of the commandment to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem was from Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of the Medo-Persian kingdom. Was this edict given to Ezra at this time, or thirteen years later to Nehemiah? Ezra set out on his important journey to Jerusalem, as far as we can now discover, in the first month, Nisan, B.C. 458. Many chronologers date the commencement of the seventy weeks from this day. Thus Prideaux (Part I.,

Book 5): "The 70 weeks being divided into three periods (i. e. into 7 weeks, 62 weeks, and 1 week), the first reaches from the time of the going forth of the commandment to Ezra for the restoring of the Church and State of the Jews, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, to the finishing of that work by Nehemiah 49 years after; the second, from the end of that period to the coming of the Messiah, 434 years after; and the last, from His coming to His cutting off by His death on the cross, which was one week or seven years after; and all these put together fully made up the 70 weeks, or 490 years of the prophecy; and as the going out of the commandment to Ezra, whence they began, was in the month Nisan, so the commission of Christ was also in the same month, 490 years after." 490 years from the seventh year of Artaxerxes brings us to A.D. 32, or if the nativity were four years earlier than our era to A.D. 36, and as we cannot attain to perfect accuracy in any of these dates, this is quite sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the prophecy. We are told that the king granted Ezra all his request, and that that included the rebuilding of Jerusalem we find from Ezra's own words (ix. 9), " Our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem."

Commands issued from the Shahanshah in his royal palace in Teheran in the present day are often paid little heed to by the governors of the provinces, or if any attention is paid to them it is only for a very short time. And it would appear that for thirteen years after this famous edict was given to Ezra, the work of rebuilding Jerusalem made very little progress indeed. They were troublous times to Ezra the priest. But better days were coming. Artaxerxes still reigned over the Medo-Persian empire.

It was wintertime, and the court of the great Shahanshah was now at Shushan, in Elam, the winter residence of the monarch.

Though with the usual carelessness of eastern kings he troubled himself very little about the neglect shown by the governor of Syria to his edict given thirteen years before to Ezra, still his partiality for the Jews continued, and Nehemiah, the son of Hachaliah, who is thought to have been of the tribe of Judah, held the honourable post of cupbearer to the monarch. Artaxerxes loved his faithful servant, and on the twentieth day of the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of his reign, he was astonished at seeing one whose happy, cheerful face had always been his delight, and who afterwards encouraged his own countrymen by the words "Let the joy of the Lord be your strength,' downcast and sorrowful. He was well called Nehemiah-the comforter of Jehovah, or Jehovah my comforter. On inquiring the cause of Nehemiah's unwonted sorrowfulness, he was told that it was because "the city, the place of my father's sepulchre, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire." Nehemiah, at his own request, was at once permitted to visit Jerusalem, and a fresh edict was granted him for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Artaxerxes reigned forty

years. His successors were Xerxes II., Sogdianus, and Darius Nothus.

Darius Nothus came to the throne B.C. 424, and is probably the Darius of Neh. xii. 22, whose name closes the history of the Old Testament. It was in his reign that the seven weeks, forty-nine years, of Daniel's prophecy came to an end, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem in troublous times was completed, B.C. 409. This was in the days of Joiakim, the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor, and of Ezra the priest, the scribe, when the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem was celebrated.

With Darius Nothus all interest in the history of Persia and its connexion with the people of God ceases, until the time when that interest was again revived by the preaching of the Gospel, and the establishment of a Christian Church in Persia by the Apostles and their immediate followers.

The successors of Darius Nothus were Artaxerxes Mnemon, Artaxerxes Ochus, and Darius Codomanus. The famous retreat of the 10,000 took place under Xenophon, in the reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon. Darius Codomanus came to the throne B.C. 336; with him ended "the breast and arms of silver," the Medo-Persian empire (Dan. ii. 32). The second beast, like to a bear passed away, and another like to a leopard arose, and dominion was given to it (Dan. vii. 5, 6). "For an he goat (Alexander of Macedon) came from the west on the face of the whole earth . . . and the goat, which had a notable horn between his eyes... smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him." In B.C. 334, Alexander defeated Darius I. on the banks of the Granicus, and then in the fatal battle of Issus, in which 100,000 were slain; and the family of Darius fell into the victor's hands. The battle of Arbela, which succeeded, completed the triumph of Alexander, and put an end to the dynasty of Cyrus, which had lasted two hundred and six years. And "the belly and thighs of brass," i. e. the Grecian empire, succeeded to "the breast and arms of silver."

THE FIRST MEETING OF THE BENGAL NATIVE
CHURCH COUNCIL.

M

ISSIONARY work must, from its very nature, be progressive work. It is of course possible to conceive cases where, at the command of a barbarous ruler, nations lay aside old superstitions and adopt another religion, true or false, without reflection and without conviction, in wholesale obedience to orders. Instances of this kind are not wanting in history; but even though eventually there has been a final profession of Christianity the first stages can hardly be referred to with satisfaction. True conversion must be the result of individual conviction, consequent upon the faithful preaching of the Gospel. It is the work of the Holy Spirit of God. As the wind bloweth where, when, and how it listeth, so also is the influence of the Spirit. Sometimes it may affect masses, as on

the Day of Pentecost; more usually here one and there another is constrained to the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Disappointment ought, therefore, not to be felt when missionary work is, as it often is, slow work. "The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain." Impatience is but a synonym of ignorance. We should esteem it a singular privilege that in our days the trying of our faith is not so severely taxed as it was in the days of our fathers. Although we are still not permitted to behold all that we could wish for, yet enough proof is vouchsafed that labour in the Lord and for the Lord is not vain labour, but is blessed of Him.

It is with feelings of this description that we take up the Report of the First Meeting of the Bengal Native Church Council in connexion with the Church Missionary Society, held in Calcutta in the spring of the present year. Though it was in Calcutta and its neighbourhood that the Gospel was first preached by various Christian societies, and the first converts to the Gospel in Northern India were gathered in, yet Bengal has been the last to organize itself in an embodiment of its own. There is significance even in this fact. We pass over, with some reluctance, the early efforts made by others to propagate Christianity in Bengal; but these attempts are generally well known by Christians interested in Missions. It was in 1819-20, about sixty years ago, that the Church Missionary Society began its operations in Calcutta. In 1822 a dozen Native communicants were gathered in. The liturgical service of the Church of England was for the first time read in the Trinity Church at Amherst Street. Subsequently "Mission stations connected with the C.M.S. were opened in various places, such as Krishnagar, Burdwan, Barripur, &c. The missionaries of the Society-Wilson, Richard, Weitbrecht, Dean, Sandys, and Vaughan— contributed in a great measure to the building up of the Church in Bengal." According to the table supplied in the last Report of the Parent Society, the number of Christians connected with the Church Missionary Society in Lower Bengal is 7068, of whom 807 are communicants, with five Native clergy, and 200 male and female Native Christian teachers: 5189 boys and girls are under instruction. There has, therefore, in the Lower Bengal Mission, been progress, but the progress has not been rapid, nor the success great, in proportion to the millions from whom these thousands have been gathered. It should, however, be carefully borne in mind that the numbers given are only the visible results. No account is, nor can be taken statistically of the change of feeling operating in the minds of the people. There would be difficulty also in assiguing the proportion of this change due to the preaching of missionaries of the C.M.S., and to the influence of the Church they have gathered in. Much also of the change may be attributable to other causes, such as education, and what may roughly be termed European civilization. Certainly, in no part of India is there more fermentation in the minds of men on religious subjects than in Lower Bengal, while at the same time in places like Nuddea it is the stronghold of ancient superstitions. The difficulties, there