caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus ; every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled; yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it."-Ezekiel xxix. 18.

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'Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre and Sidon? . . . will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head; because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things: the children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold... I will return your recompence upon your own head; and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans."-Joel iii. 4, &c.

"I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall devour the palaces thereof."-Amos i. 10.

"And Tyrus did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets. Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire." -Zechariah ix. 3, 4.

"... We sailed into Syria, and landed at Tyre; for there the ship was to unlade her burden. And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days; who said to Paul, through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem. And when we had accomplished those days, we departed and went our way; and they all brought us on our way, with wives and children, till we were out of the city and we kneeled down on the shore, and prayed. And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again.”—Acts xxi. 3.'

:

[1 Kings v. 1, vii. 13; 1 Chron. xxii. 4; Psalm lxxxvii. 4; Jer. xxv. 22, xxvii. 3, xlvii. 4; Matt. xi. 21, xv. 21; Mark iii. 8, vii. 24, 31; Luke vi. 17, x. 13; Acts xii. 20. See also Scripture Notices for Sidon.]

'In reviewing the prophecies respecting Tyre, we must bear in mind that under this name both the old and also the island Tyre are included.

Some

Tyre is said to have been founded by a colony from Sidon, 240 years before the building of Solomon's Temple. The original city was situated upon the main land; and we find Tyre mentioned, in the divi

sion of the land by Joshua, as a strong city, and afterwards, under David, as a strong-hold. In the letter of Hiram to Solomon, as given by Josephus, the Tyrians are described as already occupying the island. In the days of Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, about 720 B.C., the chief city was upon the island, and the city on

Some prophecies therefore relate to the former, and some to the latter city. Old Tyre was to be utterly destroyed, never to be found again; island Tyre was to revive after a season, and then again to fall.

the

the land already bore the name of Old Tyre; the latter submitted to that monarch, while the former was blockaded by him for five years in vain. Nebuchadnezzar also, at a later period, laid siege to Tyre for thirteen years; whether it was at last captured by him we are not expressly informed, but we are told that the inhabitants fled with their spoils, so fulfilling the prediction, that the army of Nebuchadnezzar should serve a hard service, and yet get no wages from the wealth of Tyre. Then came the celebrated siege by Alexander the Great, (about 332 B.C.) who succeeded, after seven months, in taking the island-city, after having with great labour and difficulty, built up a causeway, or mole, from the main land to the walls. For this purpose, Old Tyre was razed, and the stones employed for the mole and other works of the besiegers. The ruins of Tyre-her stones, and her timber, and her dust, were laid in the midst of the water, her dust was scraped from her. Alexander destroyed the city by fire, and is said to have sold 30,000 Tyrians as slaves, so returning the recompence of Tyre upon her own head, by selling her sons and her daughters. Tyre continued to be a strong fortress, and at length fell under the dominion of the Romans. The mole of Alexander having remained, had now divided the strait into two harbours, and thus Tyre is described by Strabo, as a flourishing trading city, with two ports. Such it was in the times of the New Testament, when it was visited by our Lord and his Apostles, and afterwards by St. Paul. This great apostle, we are told, on one occasion, tarried there seven days. "The shores had witnessed many splendid spectacles, but none so beautiful as that which they presented upon his departure. When we had accomplished those days, we departed, and went our way; and the disciples all brought us on our way, with wives and children, till we were out of the city, and we kneeled down on the shore and prayed; and when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship, and

they returned home again.' Tyre was a metropolitan see at an early period, and possessed a famous temple,”1 erected by Paulinus. On this occasion, Eusebius wrote a 'solemn sermon,' which is yet extant. It was perhaps at this period that the brighter predictions of the prophets received their accomplishment. The daughter

of Tyre shall be there with a gift—he that remaineth, even he, shall be for our God-her merchandize and her hire shall be holiness unto the Lord.' The historian of Cæsarea gives this delightful character of the church then in existence :- Comely rites and ceremonies of the church were celebrated . . . Men and women of every age, with all the might that in them lay, with cheerful mind and will, in prayer and thanksgiving, honoured God.' In the persecutions, many spirits fled triumphantly from Tyre to join the noble army of martyrs.'

Tyre, as has been already observed, early became a Christian bishopric, and under the Crusaders, the first archbishop was an Englishman, William of Tyre. Tyre continued a noble and beautiful city till the time of the Crusades, when it underwent many reverses. It was not, however, until the Crusaders had been for twenty-five years in possession of the Holy City, that they were able to lay siege successfully to Tyre, then under the dominion of the Saracens, and the strong-hold of Muslem power. William of Tyre, writing upon the spot, describes the city at the time as very strongly fortified; being enclosed toward the sea, in most parts, by a double wall with towers; on the north, within the city, was the walled port, with an entrance between double towers; and on the east, where it was accessible by land, it was protected by a triple wall, with lofty towers close together, and a broad ditch, which might be filled from the sea on both sides. On the 11th February, A.D. 1124, the Christian host

1 Maundrell suggests that the remains of the ancient church, now visible at Tyre, may be those of this very temple.

sat down before Tyre; and on the 27th of the following June, the city was delivered into their hands. On entering the wealthy emporium, the pilgrims were surprised at the strength of its fortifications, the size and splendour of the houses, the loftiness of the towers, the solidity of the walls, and the beauty of the port, with its difficult entrance. For more than a century and a half, Tyre appears to have remained in the possession of the Christians, and maintained its prosperity. The entrance of the port was closed every night by a chain between the towers; and the city was celebrated for the manufacture of glass, and the production of sugar. At length, however, this important city was abandoned to the Saracens, and its fortifications of strong quadruple walls, and citadel with seven towers, regarded as impregnable, were, it appears, razed by them. many years afterwards, Tyre is described as being

Not

desolate and in ruins-it never recovered from the blow, but sunk deeper and deeper in abandonment and desolation. Travellers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries describe it as only a heap of ruins-broken arches and vaults, tottering walls and fallen towers, with a few miserable inhabitants housing in the vaults amid the rubbish. Attempts were made to raise it from its degradation, but they failed; and one traveller relates, that the little that remained of a spacious palace, which was once erected there, served as a khân for travellers.

Maundrell, in 1697, observes," This city, standing in the sea, upon a peninsula, promises, at a distance, something very magnificent. But when you come to it, you find no similitude of that glory for which it was so renowned in ancient times, and which the prophet Ezekiel describes. On the north side it has an old Turkish ungarrisoned castle; besides which, you see nothing here but a mere Babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, &c., there being not so much as one entire house left. Its present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches, harbouring themselves in the vaults, and sub