I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall devour the palaces thereof.
The Divine judgment on Tyre
To follow out the accomplishment of the prophecies respecting Tyre, under the conduct of so good a guide as Bishop Newton, is a most interesting occupation. He gives the following quotation from Maundrell. “This city, standing in the sea, upon a peninsula, promises at a distance something very magnificent. But when you come to it, you find no similitude of that glory for which it was so renowned in ancient times. On the north side, it was an old Turkish, ungarrisoned castle; besides which you see nothing here but a mere Babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, etc., there being not so much as one entire house left; its present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches, harbouring themselves in the vaults, and subsisting chiefly upon fishing, who seem to be preserved in this place by Divine providence, as a visible evidence, how God has fulfilled His word concerning Tyre, namely, that it should be ‘as a top of a rock, a place for fishers to dry their nets on.’” Newton himself says: “Such hath been the fate of this city, once the most famous in the world for trade and commerce. But trade is a fluctuating thing: it passed from Tyre to Alexandria, from Alexandria to Venice, from Venice to Antwerp, from Antwerp to Amsterdam and London, the English rivalling the Dutch, as the French are now rivalling both. All nations almost are now wisely applying themselves to trade; and it behoves those who are in possession of it to take the greatest care they do not lose it. It is a plant of tender growth, and requires sun and soil and fine seasons to make it thrive and flourish. It will not grow like the palm tree, which, with the more weight and pressure, rises the more. Liberty is a friend to that, as that is a friend to liberty. But the greatest enemy to both is licentiousness, which tramples upon all law and lawful authority, encourages riots and tumults, promotes drunkenness and debauchery, sticks at nothing to supply its extravagance, practises every art of illicit gain, ruins credit, ruins trade, and will, in the end, ruin liberty itself. Neither kingdoms nor commonwealths, neither public companies nor private persons, can long carry on a beneficial, flourishing trade without virtue and what virtue teacheth, sobriety, industry, frugality, modesty, honesty, punctuality, humanity, charity, the love of our country, and the fear of God. The prophets will inform us how the Tyrians lost it; and the like causes will always produce the like effects.” (Vincent W. Ryan, M. A.)