VII.

The Sufferings of the Besieged Fews.

"For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time; no. nor ever shall be. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before."

MATT. xxiv. 21, 23-25.

HRISTIANS of all nations are deeply interested in the fate and condition of the Jews. For the sacred Scriptures they are indebted, under God, to Jews,-Jews wrote them, Jews for ages preserved the Old Testament, and, for a time, Jews also not only were instrumentally the authors, but also the custodians of the New. This nation was

God's peculiar people, and on its behalf He worked many wonders, and has still large purposes of grace in store for it. "Our Lord sprang out of Judah." Over the country of this people He trod many weary footsteps; in its villages and towns and capital, as well as in its "deserts" or pasture lands and sea-shores, He delivered His marvellous discourses and performed His mighty miracles. Here He "suffered for sin," and died "the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God," and it was from here that He rose to His

throne. Although He was "of the seed of David according to the flesh," His countrymen, the Jews, were they who "crucified the Lord of glory." His compassionate prayer for them, "Father, forgive them," will not be forgotten. "A remnant has already been saved; and "blindness in part is happened to Israel" only "until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved." Christians everywhere ought, therefore, to be deeply interested in the Jews. On account of their unfaithfulness, and of the cruel deed which they ruthlessly did, as they clamoured for the life of Him who had come to save, and exclaimed, "His blood be on us, and on our children!" their beloved Jerusalem was razed to its foundation. In the following pages it is attempted to depict the miseries which preceded and accompanied that solemn event. Josephus, himself a Jew, is the historical authority here relied upon, though not always formally quoted. In certain parts of his great work, Josephus betrays prejudice and exaggeration, but his alleged facts in respect to the ruin of his nation, and the overthrow and destruction of its capital city, are worthy of the utmost confidence. It was "beautiful for situation," and "the joy of the whole earth," and thither "the tribes went up" to worship in the earthly courts of "the King of kings; but "the Lord hath done that which He had devised; He hath thrown down, and not pitied; He hath swallowed up Israel, He hath swallowed up all his palaces; He hath destroyed his strongholds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation."

The miseries of which it is here intended to speak are those which preceded and accompanied the destruction of Jerusalem; and, sad as it is to have to allude to "miseries" in connection with the ancient and chosen people of God, the term is not too strong in connection with the facts of the case; for, in speaking of the sufferings endured by the Jews at this time, their own historian uses the very words of our Lord. He says: "For truly it happened to our city, of all them that came under the power of the Romans, that it was advanced to the greatest happiness, and afterwards sunk into the greatest misery; for if the calamities of all, from the beginning of the world, were to be compared to those of the Jews, in my opinion they would appear less. The multitude of those that therein perished exceeded all the destructions that either men or God ever brought upon the world." For "no city ever suffered such things, nor any generation, from the beginning of time, has ever been more fruitful in sickness."

To understand the force and justice of such language, as also the exact fulfilment of the fearful prediction, we must enter somewhat minutely into the facts, and consider them in detail. Over some of these facts, however, we must throw a veil; they are too horrid, as well as too shameless and abominable, to be repeated.

ROBBERS.

The miseries of the Jews arose mainly from two sources, "from themselves-from resolute and des

perate robbers, from abandoned and cruel factions within the city, and from the Romans as a besieging army, without." It is the former which is here considered. To understand this part of the subject, it must be borne in mind that the city was infested with the most resolute and desperate robbers, who had gathered in from all parts of the country. The city was also divided into factions, led on by the most abandoned and cruel leaders. It was also visited by a most wasting and heart-rending famine.

And first we would speak of the robbers. "The captains of these troops of robbers, being satiated with rapine in the country, got together from all parts desperadoes like themselves, and they became a band of wickedness, and all crept together into Jerusalem, and joining to them those that were worse than themselves, omitted no kind of barbarity; for they did not measure their courage by their rapine and plundering only, but proceeded as far as murdering men, and this not in the night time or privately, or with regard to ordinary men; but openly, in the daytime, and began with the most eminent persons in the city. The first man they meddled with was Antipas, one of royal lineage, and the most potent man in the whole city, insomuch that the public treasures were committed to his care. Him they

took and confined, as they did Levias and Sophas, both also of royal lineage, and many other principal men." Not thinking it safe to keep persons of such influence in custody, by reason of their numerous and powerful friends, "it was resolved to have them slain.

Accordingly, they sent one John, the most bloodyminded of them all, to do that execution. Ten more went along with him into the prison, with their swords drawn, and so they cut the throats of these men that were in custody there." "This caused a terrible consternation among the people, and every one contented himself with taking care of his own safety, as they would do if the city had been taken in war."

Again: "Now the people had come to that degree of meanness and fear, and these robbers to that degree of madness, that these last took upon them to appoint high-priests. So, when they had disannulled the succession according to those families from which the high-priest used to be appointed, they ordained certain unknown and ignoble persons for that office, that they might have their assistance in their wicked undertakings; for such as obtained this highest of all honours, without any desert, were forced to comply with those who bestowed it upon them." "They also set the principal men at variance one with another, and thus gained the opportunity of doing what they pleased by the mutual quarrels of those who might have obstructed their measures; till, at length, they transferred their contumelious behaviour to God Himself, and came into the sanctuary (holy place) with polluted feet." "These men made the temple a stronghold for themselves:" "The sanctuary was now become a refuge and a shop of tyranny."

"And now," continues the same author, "when every one was in indignation at the men seizing upon