rebellious to Merodach.

There are people, even among so-called Christians, who try the same
immoral and impossible division of what must in its very nature be
wholly given to One Supreme. To 'serve God and mammon' is demonstrably
an absurd attempt. The love and trust and obedience which are worthy
of Him must be wholehearted, whole-souled, whole-willed. It is as
impossible to love God with part of one's self as it is for a husband
to love his wife with half his heart, and another woman with the rest.
To divide love is to slay it. Cyrus had some kind of belief in
Jehovah; but his own words, so wonderfully recovered in the
inscription already referred to, proved that he had not listened to
the command, 'Him only shalt thou serve.' That command grips us as
closely as it did the Jews, and is as truly broken by thousands
calling themselves Christians as by any idolaters.

The substance of the proclamation is a permission to return to any one
who wished to do so, a sanction of the rebuilding of the Temple, and
an order to the native inhabitants to render help in money, goods, and
beasts. A further contribution towards the building was suggested as
'a free-will offering.' The return, then, was not to be at the expense
of the king, nor was any tax laid on for it; but neighbourly goodwill,
born of seventy years of association, was invoked, and, as we find,
not in vain. God had given the people favour in the eyes of those who
had carried them captive.

II. The long years of residence in Babylonia had weakened the
homesickness which the first generation of captives had, no doubt,
painfully experienced, and but a small part of them cared to avail
themselves of the opportunity of return. One reason is frankly given