ASSURANCE

ASStmANCE. — The word is used both in an objective

and a subjective sense, according as it denotes the ground of confidence or the actual experience. When St. Paul declares at Athens (Ac 17") that God has appointed Christ to judge the world, and 'has given assurance' of this unto all men by raising Him from the dead, it is an objective assurance that he means, for he knew very well that all men were not personally assured of the fact of the Resurrection. In 2 Ti 3", again, Timothy's assurance of the things he has learned is identified with the outward authority of the person from whom he has received them. For the most part, however, 'assurance' in Scripture denotes not an objective authority or fact, but a reality of inward experience. The word occurs once in OT (Is 32" AV), and quite characteristically assurance is there repre-sented as the effect of righteousness. In NT assurance (pierophoria) is an accompaniment and result of the gospel (1 Th 1'). And the assurance produced by the gospel is not intellectual merely, or emotional merely, or practical merely, it fills and satisfies the whole inner man. There is a full assurance of understanding (Col 22), and a full assurance of faith (He 10^2; cf. 2 Ti 1"), and a full assurance of hope (He 6"). [Cf. lli RV, where the last two forms of assurance run into each other — faith itself becoming the assurance (.hypostasis) or underlying ground of hope]. But there is also an assurance of love (1 Jn 3"); love being, however, not a mere feeling but a practical social faculty, a love of deed and truth that ministers in all good things to its brethren (vv. "-"). Thus on a higher plane — the plane of that Christian love which is the fulfilling of the Law — we come back to the prophetfc ideal of an inward peace and assurance which are the effects of righteousness.

In any doctrine of assurance a distinction must again be recognized between an objective and a sub-jective assurance. The grounds of Christian assurance as presented in the gospel are absolute, and it faith were merely intellectual assent, every believing man would be fully assured of his salvation. But, as a positive experience, assurance must be distinguished from saving faith (cf. 1 Co 9"). Yet the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God (Ro 8'") ; and those in whom the consciousness of that witness is dim and faint should seek with more diligence to grow in faith and hope and love and understanding also, that thereby they may make their calling and election sure (2 P l'»). J. C. Lambert.

ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA.— I. Assyeia.— 1. Natural features and Civilization. — Strictly speaking, Assyria was a small district bounded on the N. and E. by the mountains of Armenia and Kurdistan, on the W. by the Tigris, on the S. by the Upper Zab. The W. bank of the Tigris was early included, and the limits of the kingdom gradually extended till the Empire included all Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and parts of Asia Minor and Egypt. The term 'Assyria,' therefore, was widely different in meaning at different periods. The earliest capital was Asshur, on the W. of the Tigris, between the mouths of the Upper and Lower Zab. The above-named district, a natural stronghold, was the nucleus of the country. For the most part hilly, with well-watered valleys and a wide plain along the 'Tigris, it was fertile and populous. The cities Calah at the . junction of the Upper Zab, Nineveh on the ChOser, Dur-Sargon to the N.E., Imgur-Bel S.E., Tarbis to the N.W., and Arbela between the rivers Zab, were the most noted in Assyria itself.

The climate was temperate. The slopes of the hills were well wooded with oak, plane, and pine; the plains and valleys produced figs, olives, and vines. Wheat, barley, and millet were cultivated. In the days of the Empire the orchards were stocked with trees, among which have been recognized date palms, orange, lemon.

ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA

pomegranate, apricot, mulberry, and other fruits. A great variety of vegetables were grown in the gardens, including beans, peas, cucumbers, onions, lentils. The hills furnished plenty of excellent building stone, the soft alabaster specially lent itself to the decoration of halls with sculptures in low relief, while fine marbles, hard limestone, conglomerate and basalt, were worked into stone vessels, pillars, altars, etc. Iron, lead, and copper were obtainable in the mountains near. The lion and wild ox, the boar, deer, gazelle, goat, and hare were hunted. The wild ass, mountain sheep, bear, fox, jackal, and many other less easily recognized animals are named. The eagle, bustard, crane, stork, wild goose, various ducks, partridge, plover, the dove, raven, swallow, are named; besides many other birds. Fish were plentiful. The Assyrians had domesticated oxen, asses, sheep, goats, and dogs. Camels and horses were introduced from abroad.

The Assyrians belonged to the North Semitic group, being closely akin to the Aramceans, Phcenicians, and Hebrews. Like the other Mesopotamian States, Assyria early came under the predominating influence of Babylonia. According to Gn 10", Nimrod went out from the land of Shinar into Assyria and built Nineveh, etc. That Babylonian colonies settled in Assyria is prob-able, but it is not clear that they found a non-Semitic population there. The Assyrians of historic times were more robust, warlike, 'fierce' (Is 33"), than the mild, industrial Babylonians. This may have been due to the influence of climate and incessant warfare; but it may indicate a different race. The culture and religion of Assyria were essentially Babylonian, save for the predominance of the national god Ashur. The king was a despot at home, general of the army abroad, and he rarely missed an annual expedition to exact tribute or plunder some State. The whole organization of the State was essentially mUitary. The Uterature was borrowed from Babylonia, and to the library of the last great king, Ashurbanipal, we owe most of the Babylonian classics. The Assyrians were historians more than the Babylonians, and they invented a chronology which is the basis of all dating for Western Asia. They were a predatory race, and amassed the spoils of all Mesopotamia in their treasure-houses, but they at least learned to value what they had stolen. The enormous influx of manufactured articles from abroad and the military demands prevented a genuinely native industrial de-velopment, but the Assyrians made splendid use of foreign talent. In later times, the land became peopled by captives, while the drain upon the Assyrian army to conquer, garrison, colonize, and hold down the vast Empire probably robbed the country of resisting power.

2. History. — The excavations conducted at Nineveh and Calah by Layard, 1845 to 1851; by Botta at Khorsabad, 1843-1845; continued by Rassam, G. Smith, and others up to the present time; the edition of the inscriptions by RawUnson, Norris, and Smith, and the decipherment of them by Rawlinson, Hincks, and Oppert, have rendered available for the history of Assyria a mass of material as yet only partially digested. Every year fresh evidence is discovered by explorers in the East, and the wide-spread influence of Assyria may be illustrated by the discovery of a stele of Sargon in Cyprus, a stele of Esarhaddon at Zinjerli on the borders of Cihcia, a letter from Ashur-uballit, king of Assyria, to Amenophis iv., king of Egypt, at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt, of statues of Assyrian kings at Nahr-el-Kelb near Beyrout. Besides this primary source of history, chiefly contemporaneous with the events it records, we have scattered incidental notices in the historical and prophetical books of the OT giving an important external view, and some records in the Greek and Latin classics, mostly too late and uncritical to be of direct value. Owing to the intimate connexion of Assyria and Babylonia, a great deal may be treated as common matter, but it will conduce to clearness to

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