:

they pretended that sixty-seven years only had elapsed since the destruction of the Temple, and that they must wait until seventy were completed, before it could be restored but this idle pretence was sternly rebuked by the prophet Haggai, who with Zechariah, began to prophecy in the second year of Darius Hystaspes. He urged Zerubbabel and the high priest Jeshua to begin the work anew, and reproaches the people with not having brought in the Temple tribute, nor the produce of their fields and flocks for the sacrifices; he warns them with severe irony, that they were not themselves the richer for their ill-timed avarice; for no blessing had been their labours.- "Ye have sown much,"

upon

he says, "and bring in little; ye eat, but have have not enough; ye drink, but are not filled; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes." (Haggai i. ch.)

Urged on by these remonstrances, the high priest Jeshua, and Zerubbabel the governor, once more began the work: The walls were strongly constructed of timber and stones, and were soon of considerable height; Tatnai, governor of the Persian provinces beyond the Jordan, on hearing of it, hastened to Jerusalem, to judge with his own eyes of the evil reports which had been carried to him by their jealous neighbours, who looked with envy upon their prosperity. When Tatnai asked the elders, who had commanded them to build the temple, and

the strong walls of its courts:' they related to him their conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, their captivity, and the edict granted them by Cyrus, and showed him the vessels of the Temple which he had restored to them; all which Tatnai reported to the court of Persia, desiring that search might be made in Babylon for the decree of Cyrus, that it might be seen if the permission had been granted, as the Jews said.

Darius was a just and temperate prince, who proposed in all things to imitate the example of the great Cyrus. He ordered the records to be searched, and the decree was found at Ecbatana, (called Achmetha in Ezra,) which was the summer residence of the kings of Persia in the time of Cyrus, as Susa was their winter capital. Here it was found that the Jews had received full power to rebuild their Temple, and moreover, that to do so had been strictly commanded them by Cyrus. As so long a period had intervened, and the work was yet incomplete, Darius no doubt suspected that through the ill offices of the Samaritans, difficulties had been thrown in their way by jealous governors, and officious subalterns: he therefore wrote to Tatnai not to hinder the work, and added another edict of his own, commanding him to supply money for it out of the king's treasury, and to give the Jews wheat, salt, wine and oil, day by day without fail, for the sacrifices: And further to intimidate their enemies, he ordered the severest punishments to be inflicted upon any who should

alter a word of this edict; his house was to be pulled down, and made a heap, and the offender hanged thereon; and it ended with these words, "I, Darius, have made a decree: let it be done with speed."

When Tatnai received this letter from Darius, he sent to the Jews, and to all the neighbouring districts, commanding every one to hasten the work, and render assistance according to the king's pleasure. Thus encouraged, the building proceeded rapidly, and the Temple was erected and adorned with all the splendour their comparatively small resources allowed. In the sixth year of Darius it was completed, on the third day of the month Adar, nearly answering to the beginning of our March, and the last month of the sacred year. A solemn dedication was held, and the people beheld with tears of joy their Temple rising again on the holy Mount Moriah; again testifying to the favor of Jehovah, and thus sanctifying their happy restoration to the land of Judah.

The Feast of the Passover, which followed on the fourteenth day of the same month, was celebrated with unusual festivity and solemnity: they "kept the feast of unleavened bread with joy; for the LORD had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel." Ezra vi.

The Jews reckon up five particulars, in which this second Temple was inferior to the First:

1st. The Ark of Covenant was not in it. It was probably destroyed by the Babylonians when they took Jerusalem, as were the Golden Candlesticks, the Altar of Incense, and the Table Shew Bread.

2nd. The Shekinah, or Divine Presence: manifested by a visible cloud resting on the mercy seat over the Ark, between the Cherubim. It first appeared in the Desert, and guided the Israelites in their march, and afterwards descended at the dedication of Solomon's Temple, and rested over the Ark of the Covenant when in its place in the Holy of Holies.

3rd. Urim and Thummim: The exact nature of this is unknown, but it was contained in the Breastplate of the High Priest, and gave clear and distinct answers, either to the eye or ear, when consulted by the High Priests. This was lost at the captivity, and this privilege, which marked the Israelites as a peculiar nation, under a theocracy, was never restored to them.

4th. The holy Fire. It descended on the Altar when the Tabernacle was reared at Mount Sinai; and again on the dedication of Solomon's Temple.

5th. The Spirit of Prophecy. This was not however entirely wanting, as the prophets Haggai and Zechariah were living; but after Malachi, who prophesied in the time of Nehemiah, the gift of prophecy was withdrawn; an interval of about four hundred years separating the ancient

See Prideaux.

prophets of the Old Covenant, from the MesIsiah of the New.

The five last Psalms were probably composed for the dedication of this Temple, and if they do not equal in sublimity those of David, they are superior to any hymns of uninspired writers.

Yet did the glory of the Second Temple far exceed the glory of the first; for in this Second Temple, appeared Christ, the Saviour of the World. "And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of Hosts." "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of Hosts; and in this place will I give peace." Haggai ii. 7 to 9.

B. C.

HAGGAI is the first in order of the three 520. prophets who prophesied after the captivity. He was born during the captivity, probably at Babylon, and returned with the first body of exiles under Zerubbabel. His writings are contained in two chapters, and consist of four separate parts: in the first, he opens his prophetic office by a message of remonstrance and reproof