Table Of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Aids to Study j jg The Orders of the Temple and Hospital ijfio CORRESPONDENCE : — Masons at Public . Meetings 5 62 Provincial Grand Officers cG 2

Bro . Hughan and Grind Lodge 5 62 Reviews 5 6 3 Masonic Tidings 5 6 3 Canterbury Cathedral 5 64 CRAFT MASONRY : —

i \ etropohtan 5 6 5 Provincial 5 66 ROYAL ARCH : — Provincial 5 66 RED CROSS OF CONSTANTINE -.

—Metropolitan 5 06 South Africa s / ifi Wc-tern Australia 5 (> - Masonic Notes and Queries , 5 C 8 OBITUARY : —

Bro . John Donkin 5 60 Bio . J . C . Relph 5 f , rj Bro . Chas . Wigan ^ iiy Masonic Meetings for next week 5 6 9 Aclveitisements JJ ,-, S , -jro , -rri , 572

Aids To Study.

AIDS TO STUDY .

BY BRO . WM . CARPENTKU , P . M . and P . Z . 177 XII . In the brief glance which was taken of the old Assyrian emp ' re in my last paper , Pul was spoken of as the Assyrian monarch who invaded Israel and exacted tribute from Menahem ,

about 760 B . C . But there is some doubt as to the identity of this monarch , and some difficulty in harmonising the Assyrian annals with the

chronicles of the Hebrew monarchy . Tin former , in their series of kings , give no om which resembles Pul . and various con

jectures , more or less plausible , have been hazarded , for the purpose of removing the difficulty . As it is the only one that presents itself in comparing these two sets of

records , considerable anxiety has been felt about it . Pul is certainly an abbreviation , for ne Assyrian name consists of a single element ; and the simplest tiling is to identify Pul and

Tiglath-Pileser . In the Assyrian annals the receipt of tribute from Menahem , king of Israel , is mentioned . The middle element of Tiglathipal-zira , might , as Mr . Smith suggests , give the

name Pul , but he , at the same time , suggests that it is quite inconceivable that the Hebrew chronicler , who gives the full name of Ti glath-Pileser so accurately , should just before corrupt it

into Pul : and he refers especially to 1 Chron v . 26 . Probably , then , the conjecture of Professor Rawlinson , i . e ., that Pul was a branch of the Royal famil y reigning in Babylonia , and

not improbably over Assyria , also , as Suzerain ; and Smith thinks we may even have the name of this Babylonian king in the legendary Belesys of Ctesias .

From this point we can follow both the history and chronology of Assyria to nearly its close , with tolerable ceitainty . It lasted about 120 or 140 years , under n . succession of known

Kings , among whom we recognise the wellknown Scriptural names of Tiglath-Pileser , Shalmaneser , Sargon , Sennacherib , and Esar-Haddon while , of the sixth , Assluir-bani-Pal , we at length ,

probably , find the name of the Greek Sardanapalus . Of the conquests of Tiglath-Pileser , against the Kings of Israel and Syria , when he took Damascus , subdued the Syrians , and car .

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ned away a portion of the ten tribes of Israel , we have an account in 2 Kings , xv . 29 , 37 . xvi . 8 , 9 j 1 Chron , v . 26 , by which the prophecy of Amos was fulfilled , and fiom which it appears

that thc Assyrian empire had now become great and powerful . The next King was Shalmaneser ( B . C . 729 ) , who invaded Phoenicia , aud laidsiege to Samaria , but dying before the fall ofthe place ,

the siege was continued b y Sargon , who carried the rest of the people away , replacing them by men from Babylon , & c . Whence it appears that Babylon , at that time , at . least , was ruled by the

King of Assyria ( See 1 Kings , xvii . 6 , 24 ) . — The son and successor of Sargon ( whose existence was doubted , until the discovery of his palace at Khorsabad , by M . Botta , in 1842 ) ,

was Sennacherib ( B . C . 719 ) . It was in tbe reign of thij Prince and his successor , Esar-Haddon , that , according to Sir Isaac Newton , the Assyrian Empire reached its greatness , beint *;

united under one monarch , andcontainmir Assvria , Media , Apolloniaris , Susiann , Babylon or Chaldea , Mesopotamia , Cilicia , Syria ,. Phoenicia , Egypt , Ethiopia , and part of Arabia ; and , reaching

eastward to Elymais and Parataxrene , a province of the Medes—with Colchis and Iberia , the two Armenins , Poniiis , and Cappadocin . . as far as to the river Halys . It would appear that Esar-Haddon ,

who brought the Babylonian empire under his dominion , at first suffered it to be governed by princes or viceroys ; but his successor united it wilh Assyria .

In the reign of Ahaz ( B . C . 743 ) , Judah became tributary to Assyria ; but Hezekiah , who succeeded him in the throne ( B . C . 728 ) ,

encouraged , probably , by the circumstance of Mardoc-Empadus of Babylon , throwing orf ' the yoke , rebelled against Assyria , and incurred the resentment of his Suzerain . In the fourteenth

year of his reign , Sennacherib , the new King of Assyria , came with a large army , to reduce J ndah to obedience , and to conquer Egypt , Hezekiah submitted to this potent conqueror , and paid the

three-hr . ndred talents of silver and twenty talents of gold , which were demanded . In the meantime , Sennacherib had obtained possession of Ashdod , the key to Egppt , but deeming it unsafe

to leave unsubdued , in his rear , the kingdom of Judah , which had once thrown oft' the yoke , he resolved to subdue it , and three of his chief officers were sent , with a great host , against

Jerusalem , to invite the people to accept a complete transplantation , similar to that which had befa !! -n Israel . These officers were Tartan , the chiefgeneral ; Rab-Saris , the chief eunuch ; nnd

Rab-Shakeh , the ehiefenp-be-arear ( 2 Chron . xxxii ) . In an insolent address to the people of Jerusalem , the " great King of Assyria" defied the great God of Israel— " How much less shall vour

God deliver you out of my hand r" ( ver . 15 ) . — The piety of Hezekiah obtained the promise , that Jehovah would accept the challenge ; and no answer was given to tlie Assyrian envoys .

Kub-Shakeh hastened to the King , who was waning agaiust Libneh , on the frontier ofthe Jewish territory , towards Egypt ( 2 Kings , xix , S ) ; but Sennacherib , hearing that Tirhakah , King of

Ethiopia , who was in alliance with Egypt , was advancing against him , sent other messengers to Hezekiah , with a letter of open defiance 10 the God of Israel , which called forth the final pro-

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mise of the destruction of the Assyrians , and the deliverance of Jerusalem ; and , on the same night , a miraculous pestilence , as " the angel of tho Lord" swept awav a . vast portion ofthe

Assyrian host Sennacherib returned to Nineveh , and as he was worshi pping in the house of Nisrcch , his god , two ofhis sons smote him with the sword , and escaped into the land of Armenia

leaving the throne to Esar-Haddon , his other son , who reigned in his stead ( 2 Kings , xix , 37 Isa . xxxvii . 38 . Esar-Haddon ( B . C . 680 ) renewed the wars

with Phoenicia , Syria , Armenia , Susiana , Media , Babylonia , and Asia Minor ; and he also desAbes himself as "conqueror of Egypt and Ethiopia . " He is probably the king who carried Manasseh

to Babylon , ( 2 Chron . xxxiii . 11 ) . Asshurbani-pal , ( B . C . 66 3 , ) who appears to have furnished the Grc . ks with the name of Sardanapalus , undertook a campaign against Susiana , but w . s

otherwise unknown for martial deeds ; nevertheless , in the whole history of Assyria , says Mr . Smith , we have no stronger evidence than tinder this king of that prosperity which the prophet

describes in his celebrated parable;— " The Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon , with fair branches , and with a shadowing shroud , and of

an high stature Under his shadow dwelt all nations ; .... nor was there any tree in the ga : den of God like into him in his beauty . " ( EzAiel XXXI . 3—8 ; .

From this point , the course of the empire is involved in uncertainty . Most of the authorities

agree , however , in representing the son ( Asshuremit-nin ) of the last named monarch , as succeeding him on the throne . This was either the Jast , or the Jast but one of ihe Assyrian kings ;

it being doubtful whether he is identical with the Saracus of Be rosus or not . With the latter monarch , the Assyrian Empire terminated , Nineveh being destroyed by the conjoint forces

of the Medes under Cyaxares , and the Babylonians under Nebo-Pelassar , It is vain to endeavour to recover the true history ofthe fall of Nineveh , however , by piecing together the few

extant fragments of writers who lived after the event . " After all , says Mr . Smitli ( Ancient History of the East , p . , 300 , ) " the real picture of the fall of Assyria ( as of Babylon ) , and of the

utter destruction of Nineveh , never to rise again , is drawn with the most literal truth , as well as poetic colouring , by the Jewish prophets , one of whom ( Ezekiel ) is , in fact , wriring the history

of Nineveh ' s fall as the type of Babylon ' s . " ( See Ezekiel xxxi ., 11 , 12 ; Nah . iii . 12—15-Zeph . ii . 13—15 ) . It is scarcely necessary to add , that the precise date of Nineveh ' s fa I

cannot Le fixed . The choice lies between B . C . 625 , and B . C . 606 . The old writers give the latter date , but the English school of

Assyriologers , represented by Sir Henry and Professor Rawlinson , adopt the former , which is fixed by the Canon as tJiat of Nebopolassar ' s accession ; 1 t Babylon .

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