could not hinder by pretending to help, took a plainer way to stop
progress. All the weapons that Eastern subtlety and intrigue could use
were persistently employed to 'weaken the hands' of the builders, and
the most potent of all methods, bribery to Persian officials, was
freely used. The opponents triumphed, and the little community began
to taste the bitterness of high hopes disappointed and noble
enterprises frustrated. How differently things had turned out from the
expectations with which the company had set forth from Babylon! The
rough awakening to realities disillusions us all when we come to turn
dreams into facts. The beginning of laying the Temple foundations is
put in 536 B.C.; the first year of Darius was 522. How soon after the
commencement of the work the Samaritan tricks succeeded we do not
know, but it must have been some time before the death of Cyrus in
529. For weary years then the sanguine band had to wait idly, and no
doubt enthusiasm died out: they had enough to do in keeping themselves
alive, and in holding their own amidst enemies. They needed, as we all
do, patience, and a willingness to wait for God's own time to fulfil
His own promise.



THE NEW TEMPLE AND ITS WORSHIP

'And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the
prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo: and
they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God
of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and
Artaxerxes king of Persia. 15. And this house was finished on the
third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign
of Darius the king. 16. And the children of Israel, the priests, and