CYRUS PROCLAIMS THAT HE WILL REBUILD THE TEMPLE.

FOR seventy years after the destruction of their city did the Hebrews remain in captivity, and during that period the powerful and gorgeous city of Babylon shared the same fate as Jerusalem, and was defeated and laid in ruins by the Persians. The captive Jews were then taken by the conquerors to Persia.

Exactly seventy years after the fall of Jerusalem, the wise and good King Cyrus ascended the Persian throne. We are told in the book of Ezra, that the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, and put it into the heart of that powerful monarch to rebuild the temple and city of Jerusalem, for God pitied the misery of his captive and repentant people, and resolved to restore them again to prosperity.

So Cyrus wrote a proclamation, and sent it not only throughout his own land, but also to all the principal kingdoms of the East. It began thus: "Thus saith Cyrus the king, since God Almighty hath appointed me to be king of the habitable earth, I believe that he is that God which the nation of the Israelites worship, for indeed he foretold my name by the prophets, and that I should build him an house at Jerusalem, in the country of Judea." The proclamation directed every one to give what he was able towards the erection of the new temple, and threatened all who did not contribute, or who offered any insult or injury to the Jews, with death by crucifixion. King Cyrus himself gave all the gold and silver vessels which were taken from the temple on its destruction, but he was not destined to see the completion of the edifice he was so desirous to rebuild.