happier, nobler, were the daring souls that rose to the occasion, and
flung ease and wealth and companionship behind them, because they
heard the divine command couched in the royal permission, and humbly
answered, 'Here am I; send me'!

III. The third point in the passage is singular--the inventory of the
Temple vessels returned by Cyrus. As to its particulars, we need only
note that Sheshbazzar is the same as Zerubbabel; that the exact
translation of some of the names of the vessels is doubtful; and that
the numbers given under each head do not correspond with the sum
total, the discrepancy indicating error somewhere in the numbers.

But is not this dry enumeration a strange item to come in the
forefront of the narrative of such an event? We might have expected
some kind of production of the enthusiasm of the returning exiles,
some account of how they were sent on their journey, something which
we should have felt worthier of the occasion than a list of bowls and
nine-and-twenty knives. But it is of a piece with the whole of the
first part of this Book of Ezra, which is mostly taken up with a
similar catalogue of the members of the expedition. The list here
indicates the pride and joy with which the long hidden and often
desecrated vessels were received. We can see the priests and Levites
gazing at them as they were brought forth, their hearts, and perhaps
their eyes, filling with sacred memories. The Lord had 'turned again
the captivity of Zion,' and these sacred vessels lay there, glittering
before them, to assure them that they were not as 'them that dream.'
Small things become great when they are the witnesses of a great
thing.

We must remember, too, how strong a hold the externals of worship had