through the prayers of God's servants,
Isaiah and King Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii. 19); Nebuchadnezzar, who
carried Daniel away into Babylon; Ahasuerus, who reigned "_from India
even unto Ethiopia_" (Esther)--well, if they ever lived at all, they
were certainly not the kind of kings spoken of in the Old Testament.
But it all happened so long ago that we cannot expect to understand
much about it now.'

[Illustration: EGYPTIAN SCRIBES AT WORK. (A) CASES FOR HOLDING WRITING
MATERIALS. NOTICE SPARE PEN PLACED BEHIND THE CLERK'S EAR]

So the questioners settled the matter in their own minds; but God had
the answer to their questions all ready for them.

He put into the hearts of some brave men the idea of going out to the
desolate plains, '_empty and void, and waste_' (Nahum ii. 10), the
plains that had once been the rich empires of Assyria and Babylon, and
there to search patiently for some trace of the splendid cities of old.

Very wonderful is the story of how these searchers found them.

Nineveh had been lying buried under huge mounds of rubbish for more
than two thousand years. Now, just at the time when her testimony was
needed, the ruined halls of her majestic palaces were once more brought
to the light of day.

What had been the names of these grim kings of old, whose stern-faced
figures were sculptured on the walls? Could any among them be the
fierce Assyrian kings mentioned in the Bible?

If only the strange wedge-shaped letters that covered every vacant
space on the stone slabs could be read, what a message from the past
they would reveal.

Once again clever men set to work and persevered until the strange
letters were deciphered, and the palace-walls gave up their secrets.
Here was King Sennacherib; here Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings xv. 29); here
Esarhaddon (2 Kings xix. 37). Oh, how wonderful to look at the
old-time portraits which had been drawn from the men themselves!

'Well, although the Egyptians and Assyrians prove to have been great
nations in the time of Moses, they had no communication with each other
except in war time; they spoke different languages, wrote in altogether
different styles, and had very different ideas about everything.
Nations kept to themselves in those days. What the Bible says of their
intercourse must be wrong.'

This all the clever people were quite sure about, but once again God
showed them their mistake.

Twenty-five years ago an Egyptian peasant woman was walking a