enlightened by God, who were called Prophets, had announced them long before, confirming their words by great miracles, in order to rouse the people to repentance. These same prophets also promised pardon to those who should repent, and prophesied of the Redeemer who was to come. In their books, written many centuries before Christ, we read all the circumstances of His life and sufferings: His birth of a Virgin at Bethlehem, His office of teaching, His miracles. His passion, His death, His resurrection, the sending of the Holy Ghost, the destruction of Jerusalem, the conversion of the Gentiles, and the splendor of the Christian Church; nay, Daniel foretold the very year in which the Saviour was to appear. The most remarkable amongst the prophets are Elias, Eliseus, Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel, and Daniel.
18. [1]During the time of the Captivity, illustrious examples of rare virtues were given by Tobias at Ninive; and at Babylon, by the chaste Susanna, by the three young men in the fiery furnace, and by Daniel in the lions' den. The Babylonian Captivity had already lasted seventy years, when Cyrus, King of Persia, took Babylon, and, by Divine inspiration, gave permission to the Jews to return to their own country (b.c. 536) and to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem. In a short time the second temple was finished; and when the old men began to complain that its magnificence was far inferior to that of the first, the Prophet Aggeus foretold to them that the glory of this latter house should be greater than that of the former, because the 'Desired of all nations,' the Messias, would enter it (Agg. ii. 8-10).
- ↑ Who distinguished themselves by their virtues at Ninive and Babylon? How long did the Babylonian Captivity last? How was it brought to an end? What did the Jews most urgently set about after their return? Was the new temple as magnificent as the one that had been demolished? In what was it superior to the first one?
