Babylonia to Judea. We are here told of the beginning of the return of
a portion of the exiles--forty-two thousand, in round numbers.

'The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus.' That unveils the deepest
cause of what fell into place, to the superficial observers, as one
among many political events of similar complexion. We find among the
inscriptions a cylinder written by order of Cyrus, which shows that he
reversed the Babylonian policy of deporting conquered nations. 'All
their peoples,' says he, in reference to a number of nations of whom
he found members in exile in Babylonia, 'I assembled and restored to
their lands and the gods ... whom Nabonidos ... had brought into
Babylon, I settled in peace in their sanctuaries' (Sayce, _Fresh
Light from the Ancient Monuments_, p. 148). It was, then, part of a
wider movement, which sent back Zerubbabel and his people to
Jerusalem, and began the rebuilding of the Temple. No doubt, Cyrus had
seen that the old plan simply brought an element of possible rebellion
into the midst of the country, and acted on grounds of political
prudence.

But our passage digs deeper to find the true cause. Cyrus was God's
instrument, and the statesman's insight was the result of God's
illumination. The divine causality moves men, when they move
themselves. It was not only in the history of the chosen people that
God's purpose is wrought out by more or less conscious and willing
instruments. The principle laid down by the writer of this book is of
universal application, and the true 'philosophy of history' must
recognise as underlying all other so-called causes and forces the one
uncaused Cause, of whose purposes kings and politicians are the
executants, even while they freely act according to their own
judgments, and, it may be, in utter unconsciousness of Him. It