The Destruction of Jerusalem

[THE LORD BARON ANDERSON VAN PASSAG]

The Destruction of Jerusalem
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"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which
belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days
shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and
compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even
with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in
thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy
visitation." Luke 19:42-44.

From the crest of Olivet, Jesus looked upon Jerusalem. Fair and peaceful was
the scene spread out before Him. It was the season of the Passover, and from
all lands the children of Jacob had gathered there to celebrate the great
national festival. In the midst of gardens and vineyards, and green slopes
studded with pilgrims' tents, rose the terraced hills, the stately palaces,
and massive bulwarks of Israel's capital. The daughter of Zion seemed in her
pride to say, I sit a queen and shall see no sorrow; as lovely then, and
deeming herself as secure in Heaven's favor, as when, ages before, the royal
minstrel sang: "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is
Mount Zion, . . . the city of the great King." Psalm 48:2. In full view were
the magnificent buildings of the temple. The rays of the setting sun lighted
up the snowy whiteness of its marble walls and gleamed from golden gate and
tower and pinnacle. "The perfection of

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beauty" it stood, the pride of the Jewish nation. What child of Israel could
gaze upon the scene without a thrill of joy and admiration! But far other
thoughts occupied the mind of Jesus. "When He was come near, He beheld the
city, and wept over it." Luke 19:41. Amid the universal rejoicing of the
triumphal entry, while palm branches waved, while glad hosannas awoke the
echoes of the hills, and thousands of voices declared Him king, the world's
Redeemer was overwhelmed with a sudden and mysterious sorrow. He, the Son of
God, the Promised One of Israel, whose power had conquered death and called
its captives from the grave, was in tears, not of ordinary grief, but of
intense, irrepressible agony.

His tears were not for Himself, though He well knew whither His feet were
tending. Before Him lay Gethsemane, the scene of His approaching agony. The
sheepgate also was in sight, through which for centuries the victims for
sacrifice had been led, and which was to open for Him when He should be
"brought as a lamb to the slaughter." Isaiah 53:7. Not far distant was
Calvary, the place of crucifixion. Upon the path which Christ was soon to
tread must fall the horror of great darkness as He should make His soul an
offering for sin. Yet it was not the contemplation of these scenes that cast
the shadow upon Him in this hour of gladness. No foreboding of His own
superhuman anguish clouded that unselfish spirit. He wept for the doomed
thousands of Jerusalem--because of the blindness and impenitence of those
whom He came to bless and to save.

The history of more than a thousand years of God's special favor and
guardian care, manifested to the chosen people, was open to the eye of
Jesus. There was Mount Moriah, where the son of promise, an unresisting
victim, had been bound to the altar--emblem of the offering of the Son of
God. There the covenant of blessing, the glorious Messianic promise, had
been confirmed to the father of the faithful. Genesis 22:9, 16-18. There the
flames of the sacrifice ascending to heaven from the threshing floor of
Ornan had turned

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aside the sword of the destroying angel (1 Chronicles 21)--fitting symbol of
the Saviour's sacrifice and mediation for guilty men. Jerusalem had been
honored of God above all the earth. The Lord had "chosen Zion," He had
"desired it for His habitation." Psalm 132:13. There, for ages, holy
prophets had uttered their messages of warning. There priests had waved
their censers, and the cloud of incense, with the prayers of the worshipers,
had ascended before God. There daily the blood of slain lambs had been
offered, pointing forward to the Lamb of God. There Jehovah had revealed His
presence in the cloud of glory above the mercy seat. There rested the base
of that mystic ladder connecting earth with heaven (Genesis 28:12; John
1:51)--that ladder upon which angels of God descended and ascended, and
which opened to the world the way into the holiest of all. Had Israel as a
nation preserved her allegiance to Heaven, Jerusalem would have stood
forever, the elect of God. Jeremiah 17:21-25. But the history of that
favored people was a record of backsliding and rebellion. They had resisted
Heaven's grace, abused their privileges, and slighted their opportunities.

Although Israel had "mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words,
and misused His prophets" (2 Chronicles 36:16), He had still manifested
Himself to them, as "the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering,
and abundant in goodness and truth" (Exodus 34:6); notwithstanding repeated
rejections, His mercy had continued its pleadings. With more than a father's
pitying love for the son of his care, God had "sent to them by His
messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because He had compassion on His
people, and on His dwelling place." 2 Chronicles 36:15. When remonstrance,
entreaty, and rebuke had failed, He sent to them the best gift of heaven;
nay, He poured out all heaven in that one Gift.

The Son of God Himself was sent to plead with the impenitent city. It was
Christ that had brought Israel as a goodly vine out of Egypt. Psalm 80:8.
His own hand had cast

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out the heathen before it. He had planted it "in a very fruitful hill." His
guardian care had hedged it about. His servants had been sent to nurture it.
"What could have been done more to My vineyard," He exclaims, "that I have
not done in it?" Isaiah 5:1-4. Though when He looked that it should bring
forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes, yet with a still yearning hope
of fruitfulness He came in person to His vineyard, if haply it might be
saved from destruction. He digged about His vine; He pruned and cherished
it. He was unwearied in His efforts to save this vine of His own planting.

For three years the Lord of light and glory had gone in and out among His
people. He "went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of
the devil," binding up the brokenhearted, setting at liberty them that were
bound, restoring sight to the blind, causing the lame to walk and the deaf
to hear, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, and preaching the gospel to
the poor. Acts 10:38; Luke 4:18; Matthew 11:5. To all classes alike was
addressed the gracious call: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are
heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28.

Though rewarded with evil for good, and hatred for His love (Psalm 109:5),
He had steadfastly pursued His mission of mercy. Never were those repelled
that sought His grace. A homeless wanderer, reproach and penury His daily
lot, He lived to minister to the needs and lighten the woes of men, to plead
with them to accept the gift of life. The waves of mercy, beaten back by
those stubborn hearts, returned in a stronger tide of pitying, inexpressible
love. But Israel had turned from her best Friend and only Helper. The
pleadings of His love had been despised, His counsels spurned, His warnings
ridiculed.

The hour of hope and pardon was fast passing; the cup of God's long-deferred
wrath was almost full. The cloud that had been gathering through ages of
apostasy and rebellion, now black with woe, was about to burst upon a guilty
people;

21

and He who alone could save them from their impending fate had been
slighted, abused, rejected, and was soon to be crucified. When Christ should
hang upon the cross of Calvary, Israel's day as a nation favored and blessed
of God would be ended. The loss of even one soul is a calamity infinitely
outweighing the gains and treasures of a world; but as Christ looked upon
Jerusalem, the doom of a whole city, a whole nation, was before Him--that
city, that nation, which had once been the chosen of God, His peculiar
treasure.

Prophets had wept over the apostasy of Israel and the terrible desolations
by which their sins were visited. Jeremiah wished that his eyes were a
fountain of tears, that he might weep day and night for the slain of the
daughter of his people, for the Lord's flock that was carried away captive.
Jeremiah 9:1; 13:17. What, then, was the grief of Him whose prophetic glance
took in, not years, but ages! He beheld the destroying angel with sword
uplifted against the city which had so long been Jehovah's dwelling place.
From the ridge of Olivet, the very spot afterward occupied by Titus and his
army, He looked across the valley upon the sacred courts and porticoes, and
with tear-dimmed eyes He saw, in awful perspective, the walls surrounded by
alien hosts. He heard the tread of armies marshaling for war. He heard the
voice of mothers and children crying for bread in the besieged city. He saw
her holy and beautiful house, her palaces and towers, given to the flames,
and where once they stood, only a heap of smoldering ruins.

Looking down the ages, He saw the covenant people scattered in every land,
"like wrecks on a desert shore." In the temporal retribution about to fall
upon her children, He saw but the first draft from that cup of wrath which
at the final judgment she must drain to its dregs. Divine pity, yearning
love, found utterance in the mournful words: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how
often would I

22

have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and ye would not!" O that thou, a nation favored above
every other, hadst known the time of thy visitation, and the things that
belong unto thy peace! I have stayed the angel of justice, I have called
thee to repentance, but in vain. It is not merely servants, delegates, and
prophets, whom thou hast refused and rejected, but the Holy One of Israel,
thy Redeemer. If thou art destroyed, thou alone art responsible. "Ye will
not come to Me, that ye might have life." Matthew 23:37; John 5:40.

Christ saw in Jerusalem a symbol of the world hardened in unbelief and
rebellion, and hastening on to meet the retributive judgments of God. The
woes of a fallen race, pressing upon His soul, forced from His lips that
exceeding bitter cry. He saw the record of sin traced in human misery,
tears, and blood; His heart was moved with infinite pity for the afflicted
and suffering ones of earth; He yearned to relieve them all. But even His
hand might not turn back the tide of human woe; few would seek their only
Source of help. He was willing to pour out His soul unto death, to bring
salvation within their reach; but few would come to Him that they might have
life.

The Majesty of heaven in tears! the Son of the infinite God troubled in
spirit, bowed down with anguish! The scene filled all heaven with wonder.
That scene reveals to us the exceeding sinfulness of sin; it shows how hard
a task it is, even for Infinite Power, to save the guilty from the
consequences of transgressing the law of God. Jesus, looking down to the
last generation, saw the world involved in a deception similar to that which
caused the destruction of Jerusalem. The great sin of the Jews was their
rejection of Christ; the great sin of the Christian world would be their
rejection of the law of God, the foundation of His government in heaven and
earth. The precepts of Jehovah would be despised and set at nought. Millions
in bondage to sin, slaves of Satan, doomed to suffer the second death, would

23

refuse to listen to the words of truth in their day of visitation. Terrible
blindness! strange infatuation!

Two days before the Passover, when Christ had for the last time departed
from the temple, after denouncing the hypocrisy of the Jewish rulers, He
again went out with His disciples to the Mount of Olives and seated Himself
with them upon the grassy slope overlooking the city. Once more He gazed
upon its walls, its towers, and its palaces. Once more He beheld the temple
in its dazzling splendor, a diadem of beauty crowning the sacred mount.

A thousand years before, the psalmist had magnified God's favor to Israel in
making her holy house His dwelling place: "In Salem also is His tabernacle,
and His dwelling place in Zion." He "chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount
Zion which He loved. And He built His sanctuary like high palaces." Psalms
76:2; 78:68, 69. The first temple had been erected during the most
prosperous period of Israel's history. Vast stores of treasure for this
purpose had been collected by King David, and the plans for its construction
were made by divine inspiration. 1 Chronicles 28:12, 19. Solomon, the wisest
of Israel's monarchs, had completed the work. This temple was the most
magnificent building which the world ever saw. Yet the Lord had declared by
the prophet Haggai, concerning the second temple: "The glory of this latter
house shall be greater than of the former." "I will shake all nations, and
the Desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory,
saith the Lord of hosts." Haggai 2:9, 7.

After the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar it was rebuilt about
five hundred years before the birth of Christ by a people who from a
lifelong captivity had returned to a wasted and almost deserted country.
There were then among them aged men who had seen the glory of Solomon's
temple, and who wept at the foundation of the new building, that it must be
so inferior to the former. The feeling that prevailed is forcibly described
by the prophet: "Who is

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left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it
now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?" Haggai 2:3;
Ezra 3:12. Then was given the promise that the glory of this latter house
should be greater than that of the former.

But the second temple had not equaled the first in magnificence; nor was it
hallowed by those visible tokens of the divine presence which pertained to
the first temple. There was no manifestation of supernatural power to mark
its dedication. No cloud of glory was seen to fill the newly erected
sanctuary. No fire from heaven descended to consume the sacrifice upon its
altar. The Shekinah no longer abode between the cherubim in the most holy
place; the ark, the mercy seat, and the tables of the testimony were not to
be found therein. No voice sounded from heaven to make known to the
inquiring priest the will of Jehovah.

For centuries the Jews had vainly endeavored to show wherein the promise of
God given by Haggai had been fulfilled; yet pride and unbelief blinded their
minds to the true meaning of the prophet's words. The second temple was not
honored with the cloud of Jehovah's glory, but with the living presence of
One in whom dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily--who was God Himself
manifest in the flesh. The "Desire of all nations" had indeed come to His
temple when the Man of Nazareth taught and healed in the sacred courts. In
the presence of Christ, and in this only, did the second temple exceed the
first in glory. But Israel had put from her the proffered Gift of heaven.
With the humble Teacher who had that day passed out from its golden gate,
the glory had forever departed from the temple. Already were the Saviour's
words fulfilled: "Your house is left unto you desolate." Matthew 23:38.

The disciples had been filled with awe and wonder at Christ's prediction of
the overthrow of the temple, and they desired to understand more fully the
meaning of His words. Wealth, labor, and architectural skill had for more
than forty years been freely expended to enhance its splendors. Herod

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the Great had lavished upon it both Roman wealth and Jewish treasure, and
even the emperor of the world had enriched it with his gifts. Massive blocks
of white marble, of almost fabulous size, forwarded from Rome for this
purpose, formed a part of its structure; and to these the disciples had
called the attention of their Master, saying: "See what manner of stones and
what buildings are here!" Mark 13:1.

To these words, Jesus made the solemn and startling reply: "Verily I say
unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall
not be thrown down." Matthew 24:2.

With the overthrow of Jerusalem the disciples associated the events of
Christ's personal coming in temporal glory to take the throne of universal
empire, to punish the impenitent Jews, and to break from off the nation the
Roman yoke. The Lord had told them that He would come the second time. Hence
at the mention of judgments upon Jerusalem, their minds reverted to that
coming; and as they were gathered about the Saviour upon the Mount of
Olives, they asked: "When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign
of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Verse 3.

The future was mercifully veiled from the disciples. Had they at that time
fully comprehend the two awful facts--the Redeemer's sufferings and death,
and the destruction of their city and temple--they would have been
overwhelmed with horror. Christ presented before them an outline of the
prominent events to take place before the close of time. His words were not
then fully understood; but their meaning was to be unfolded as His people
should need the instruction therein given. The prophecy which He uttered was
twofold in its meaning; while foreshadowing the destruction of Jerusalem, it
prefigured also the terrors of the last great day.

Jesus declared to the listening disciples the judgments that were to fall
upon apostate Israel, and especially the retributive vengeance that would
come upon them for their rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah.
Unmistakable signs would precede the awful climax. The dreaded hour would
come

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suddenly and swiftly. And the Saviour warned His followers: "When ye
therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the
prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand then
let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains." Matthew 24:15, 16; Luke
21:20, 21. When the idolatrous standards of the Romans should be set up in
the holy ground, which extended some furlongs outside the city walls, then
the followers of Christ were to find safety in flight. When the warning sign
should be seen, those who would escape must make no delay. Throughout the
land of Judea, as well as in Jerusalem itself, the signal for flight must be
immediately obeyed. He who chanced to be upon the housetop must not go down
into his house, even to save his most valued treasures. Those who were
working in the fields or vineyards must not take time to return for the
outer garment laid aside while they should be toiling in the heat of the
day. They must not hesitate a moment, lest they be involved in the general
destruction.

In the reign of Herod, Jerusalem had not only been greatly beautified, but
by the erection of towers, walls, and fortresses, adding to the natural
strength of its situation, it had been rendered apparently impregnable. He
who would at this time have foretold publicly its destruction, would, like
Noah in his day, have been called a crazed alarmist. But Christ had said:
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away."
Matthew 24:35. Because of her sins, wrath had been denounced against
Jerusalem, and her stubborn unbelief rendered her doom certain.

The Lord had declared by the prophet Micah: "Hear this, I pray you, ye heads
of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor
judgment, and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with blood, and
Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests
thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will
they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can
come upon us." Micah 3:9-11.

27

These words faithfully described the corrupt and self-righteous inhabitants
of Jerusalem. While claiming to observe rigidly the precepts of God's law,
they were transgressing all its principles. They hated Christ because His
purity and holiness revealed their iniquity; and they accused Him of being
the cause of all the troubles which had come upon them in consequence of
their sins. Though they knew Him to be sinless, they had declared that His
death was necessary to their safety as a nation. "If we let Him thus alone,"
said the Jewish leaders, "all men will believe on Him: and the Romans shall
come and take away both our place and nation." John 11:48. If Christ were
sacrificed, they might once more become a strong, united people. Thus they
reasoned, and they concurred in the decision of their high priest, that it
would be better for one man to die than for the whole nation to perish.

Thus the Jewish leaders had built up "Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with
iniquity." Micah 3:10. And yet, while they slew their Saviour because He
reproved their sins, such was their self-righteousness that they regarded
themselves as God's favored people and expected the Lord to deliver them
from their enemies. "Therefore," continued the prophet, "shall Zion for your
sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the
mountain of the house as the high places of the forest." Verse 12.

For nearly forty years after the doom of Jerusalem had been pronounced by
Christ Himself, the Lord delayed His judgments upon the city and the nation.
Wonderful was the long-suffering of God toward the rejectors of His gospel
and the murderers of His Son. The parable of the unfruitful tree represented
God's dealings with the Jewish nation. The command had gone forth, "Cut it
down; why cumbereth it the ground?" (Luke 13:7) but divine mercy had spared
it yet a little longer. There were still many among the Jews who were
ignorant of the character and the work of Christ. And the children had not
enjoyed the opportunities or

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received the light which their parents had spurned. Through the preaching of
the apostles and their associates, God would cause light to shine upon them;
they would be permitted to see how prophecy had been fulfilled, not only in
the birth and life of Christ, but in His death and resurrection. The
children were not condemned for the sins of the parents; but when, with a
knowledge of all the light given to their parents, the children rejected the
additional light granted to themselves, they became partakers of the
parents' sins, and filled up the measure of their iniquity.

The long-suffering of God toward Jerusalem only confirmed the Jews in their
stubborn impenitence. In their hatred and cruelty toward the disciples of
Jesus they rejected the last offer of mercy. Then God withdrew His
protection from them and removed His restraining power from Satan and his
angels, and the nation was left to the control of the leader she had chosen.
Her children had spurned the grace of Christ, which would have enabled them
to subdue their evil impulses, and now these became the conquerors. Satan
aroused the fiercest and most debased passions of the soul. Men did not
reason; they were beyond reason--controlled by impulse and blind rage. They
became satanic in their cruelty. In the family and in the nation, among the
highest and the lowest classes alike, there was suspicion, envy, hatred,
strife, rebellion, murder. There was no safety anywhere. Friends and kindred
betrayed one another. Parents slew their children, and children their
parents. The rulers of the people had no power to rule themselves.
Uncontrolled passions made them tyrants. The Jews had accepted false
testimony to condemn the innocent Son of God. Now false accusations made
their own lives uncertain. By their actions they had long been saying:
"Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us." Isaiah 30:11. Now
their desire was granted. The fear of God no longer disturbed them. Satan

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was at the head of the nation, and the highest civil and religious
authorities were under his sway.

The leaders of the opposing factions at times united to plunder and torture
their wretched victims, and again they fell upon each other's forces and
slaughtered without mercy. Even the sanctity of the temple could not
restrain their horrible ferocity. The worshipers were stricken down before
the altar, and the sanctuary was polluted with the bodies of the slain. Yet
in their blind and blasphemous presumption the instigators of this hellish
work publicly declared that they had no fear that Jerusalem would be
destroyed, for it was God's own city. To establish their power more firmly,
they bribed false prophets to proclaim, even while Roman legions were
besieging the temple, that the people were to wait for deliverance from God.
To the last, multitudes held fast to the belief that the Most High would
interpose for the defeat of their adversaries. But Israel had spurned the
divine protection, and now she had no defense. Unhappy Jerusalem! rent by
internal dissensions, the blood of her children slain by one another's hands
crimsoning her streets, while alien armies beat down her fortifications and
slew her men of war!

All the predictions given by Christ concerning the destruction of Jerusalem
were fulfilled to the letter. The Jews experienced the truth of His words of
warning: "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."
Matthew 7:2.

Signs and wonders appeared, foreboding disaster and doom. In the midst of
the night an unnatural light shone over the temple and the altar. Upon the
clouds at sunset were pictured chariots and men of war gathering for battle.
The priests ministering by night in the sanctuary were terrified by
mysterious sounds; the earth trembled, and a multitude of voices were heard
crying: "Let us depart hence." The great eastern gate, which was so heavy
that it could hardly be shut by a score of men, and which was secured by

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immense bars of iron fastened deep in the pavement of solid stone, opened at
midnight, without visible agency.--Milman, The History of the Jews, book 13.

For seven years a man continued to go up and down the streets of Jerusalem,
declaring the woes that were to come upon the city. By day and by night he
chanted the wild dirge: "A voice from the east! a voice from the west! a
voice from the four winds! a voice against Jerusalem and against the temple!
a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides! a voice against the whole
people!"--Ibid. This strange being was imprisoned and scourged, but no
complaint escaped his lips. To insult and abuse he answered only: "Woe, woe
to Jerusalem!" "woe, woe to the inhabitants thereof!" His warning cry ceased
not until he was slain in the siege he had foretold.

Not one Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem. Christ had given
His disciples warning, and all who believed His words watched for the
promised sign. "When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies," said
Jesus, "then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which
are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of
it depart out." Luke 21:20, 21. After the Romans under Cestius had
surrounded the city, they unexpectedly abandoned the siege when everything
seemed favorable for an immediate attack. The besieged, despairing of
successful resistance, were on the point of surrender, when the Roman
general withdrew his forces without the least apparent reason. But God's
merciful providence was directing events for the good of His own people. The
promised sign had been given to the waiting Christians, and now an
opportunity was offered for all who would, to obey the Saviour's warning.
Events were so overruled that neither Jews nor Romans should hinder the
flight of the Christians. Upon the retreat of Cestius, the Jews, sallying
from Jerusalem, pursued after his retiring army; and while both forces were
thus fully engaged, the Christians had an opportunity to leave the city. At
this time the country also

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had been cleared of enemies who might have endeavored to intercept them. At
the time of the siege, the Jews were assembled at Jerusalem to keep the
Feast of Tabernacles, and thus the Christians throughout the land were able
to make their escape unmolested. Without delay they fled to a place of
safety--the city of Pella, in the land of Perea, beyond Jordan.

The Jewish forces, pursuing after Cestius and his army, fell upon their rear
with such fierceness as to threaten them with total destruction. It was with
great difficulty that the Romans succeeded in making their retreat. The Jews
escaped almost without loss, and with their spoils returned in triumph to
Jerusalem. Yet this apparent success brought them only evil. It inspired
them with that spirit of stubborn resistance to the Romans which speedily
brought unutterable woe upon the doomed city.

Terrible were the calamities that fell upon Jerusalem when the siege was
resumed by Titus. The city was invested at the time of the Passover, when
millions of Jews were assembled within its walls. Their stores of provision,
which if carefully preserved would have supplied the inhabitants for years,
had previously been destroyed through the jealousy and revenge of the
contending factions, and now all the horrors of starvation were experienced.
A measure of wheat was sold for a talent. So fierce were the pangs of hunger
that men would gnaw the leather of their belts and sandals and the covering
of their shields. Great numbers of the people would steal out at night to
gather wild plants growing outside the city walls, though many were seized
and put to death with cruel torture, and often those who returned in safety
were robbed of what they had gleaned at so great peril. The most inhuman
tortures were inflicted by those in power, to force from the want-stricken
people the last scanty supplies which they might have concealed. And these
cruelties were not infrequently practiced by men who were themselves well
fed, and who were merely desirous of laying up a store of provision for the
future.

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Thousands perished from famine and pestilence. Natural affection seemed to
have been destroyed. Husbands robbed their wives, and wives their husbands.
Children would be seen snatching the food from the mouths of their aged
parents. The question of the prophet, "Can a woman forget her sucking
child?" received the answer within the walls of that doomed city: "The hands
of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in
the destruction of the daughter of my people." Isaiah 49:15; Lamentations
4:10. Again was fulfilled the warning prophecy given fourteen centuries
before: "The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure
to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness,
her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son,
and toward her daughter, . . . and toward her children which she shall bear:
for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and
straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates."
Deuteronomy 28:56, 57.

The Roman leaders endeavored to strike terror to the Jews and thus cause
them to surrender. Those prisoners who resisted when taken, were scourged,
tortured, and crucified before the wall of the city. Hundreds were daily put
to death in this manner, and the dreadful work continued until, along the
Valley of Jehoshaphat and at Calvary, crosses were erected in so great
numbers that there was scarcely room to move among them. So terribly was
visited that awful imprecation uttered before the judgment seat of Pilate:
"His blood be on us, and on our children." Matthew 27:25.

Titus would willingly have put an end to the fearful scene, and thus have
spared Jerusalem the full measure of her doom. He was filled with horror as
he saw the bodies of the dead lying in heaps in the valleys. Like one
entranced, he looked from the crest of Olivet upon the magnificent temple
and gave command that not one stone of it be touched. Before attempting to
gain possession of this stronghold,

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he made an earnest appeal to the Jewish leaders not to force him to defile
the sacred place with blood. If they would come forth and fight in any other
place, no Roman should violate the sanctity of the temple. Josephus himself,
in a most eloquent appeal, entreated them to surrender, to save themselves,
their city, and their place of worship. But his words were answered with
bitter curses. Darts were hurled at him, their last human mediator, as he
stood pleading with them. The Jews had rejected the entreaties of the Son of
God, and now expostulation and entreaty only made them more determined to
resist to the last. In vain were the efforts of Titus to save the temple;
One greater than he had declared that not one stone was to be left upon
another.

The blind obstinacy of the Jewish leaders, and the detestable crimes
perpetrated within the besieged city, excited the horror and indignation of
the Romans, and Titus at last decided to take the temple by storm. He
determined, however, that if possible it should be saved from destruction.
But his commands were disregarded. After he had retired to his tent at
night, the Jews, sallying from the temple, attacked the soldiers without. In
the struggle, a firebrand was flung by a soldier through an opening in the
porch, and immediately the cedar-lined chambers about the holy house were in
a blaze. Titus rushed to the place, followed by his generals and
legionaries, and commanded the soldiers to quench the flames. His words were
unheeded. In their fury the soldiers hurled blazing brands into the chambers
adjoining the temple, and then with their swords they slaughtered in great
numbers those who had found shelter there. Blood flowed down the temple
steps like water. Thousands upon thousands of Jews perished. Above the sound
of battle, voices were heard shouting: "Ichabod!"--the glory is departed.

"Titus found it impossible to check the rage of the soldiery; he entered
with his officers, and surveyed the interior of the sacred edifice. The
splendor filled them with wonder; and as the flames had not yet penetrated
to the holy place,

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he made a last effort to save it, and springing forth, again exhorted the
soldiers to stay the progress of the conflagration. The centurion Liberalis
endeavored to force obedience with his staff of office; but even respect for
the emperor gave way to the furious animosity against the Jews, to the
fierce excitement of battle, and to the insatiable hope of plunder. The
soldiers saw everything around them radiant with gold, which shone
dazzlingly in the wild light of the flames; they supposed that incalculable
treasures were laid up in the sanctuary. A soldier, unperceived, thrust a
lighted torch between the hinges of the door: the whole building was in
flames in an instant. The blinding smoke and fire forced the officers to
retreat, and the noble edifice was left to its fate.

"It was an appalling spectacle to the Roman--what was it to the Jew? The
whole summit of the hill which commanded the city, blazed like a volcano.
One after another the buildings fell in, with a tremendous crash, and were
swallowed up in the fiery abyss. The roofs of cedar were like sheets of
flame; the gilded pinnacles shone like spikes of red light; the gate towers
sent up tall columns of flame and smoke. The neighboring hills were lighted
up; and dark groups of people were seen watching in horrible anxiety the
progress of the destruction: the walls and heights of the upper city were
crowded with faces, some pale with the agony of despair, others scowling
unavailing vengeance. The shouts of the Roman soldiery as they ran to and
fro, and the howlings of the insurgents who were perishing in the flames,
mingled with the roaring of the conflagration and the thundering sound of
falling timbers. The echoes of the mountains replied or brought back the
shrieks of the people on the heights; all along the walls resounded screams
and wailings; men who were expiring with famine rallied their remaining
strength to utter a cry of anguish and desolation.

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"The slaughter within was even more dreadful than the spectacle from
without. Men and women, old and young, insurgents and priests, those who
fought and those who entreated mercy, were hewn down in indiscriminate
carnage. The number of the slain exceeded that of the slayers. The
legionaries had to clamber over heaps of dead to carry on the work of
extermination."--Milman, The History of the Jews, book 16.

After the destruction of the temple, the whole city soon fell into the hands
of the Romans. The leaders of the Jews forsook their impregnable towers, and
Titus found them solitary. He gazed upon them with amazement, and declared
that God had given them into his hands; for no engines, however powerful,
could have prevailed against those stupendous battlements. Both the city and
the temple were razed to their foundations, and the ground upon which the
holy house had stood was "plowed like a field." Jeremiah 26:18. In the siege
and the slaughter that followed, more than a million of the people perished;
the survivors were carried away as captives, sold as slaves, dragged to Rome
to grace the conqueror's triumph, thrown to wild beasts in the
amphitheaters, or scattered as homeless wanderers throughout the earth.

The Jews had forged their own fetters; they had filled for themselves the
cup of vengeance. In the utter destruction that befell them as a nation, and
in all the woes that followed them in their dispersion, they were but
reaping the harvest which their own hands had sown. Says the prophet: "O
Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself;" "for thou hast fallen by thine
iniquity." Hosea 13:9; 14:1. Their sufferings are often represented as a
punishment visited upon them by the direct decree of God. It is thus that
the great deceiver seeks to conceal his own work. By stubborn rejection of
divine love and mercy, the Jews had caused the protection of God to be
withdrawn from them, and Satan was permitted to rule them according to his
will. The horrible cruelties enacted in the

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destruction of Jerusalem are a demonstration of Satan's vindictive power
over those who yield to his control.

We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protection which
we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind from
passing fully under the control of Satan. The disobedient and unthankful
have great reason for gratitude for God's mercy and long-suffering in
holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one. But when men
pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint is removed. God does
not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against
transgression; but He leaves the rejectors of His mercy to themselves, to
reap that which they have sown. Every ray of light rejected, every warning
despised or unheeded, every passion indulged, every transgression of the law
of God, is a seed sown which yields its unfailing harvest. The Spirit of
God, persistently resisted, is at last withdrawn from the sinner, and then
there is left no power to control the evil passions of the soul, and no
protection from the malice and enmity of Satan. The destruction of Jerusalem
is a fearful and solemn warning to all who are trifling with the offers of
divine grace and resisting the pleadings of divine mercy. Never was there
given a more decisive testimony to God's hatred of sin and to the certain
punishment that will fall upon the guilty.

The Saviour's prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments upon Jerusalem
is to have another fulfillment, of which that terrible desolation was but a
faint shadow. In the fate of the chosen city we may behold the doom of a
world that has rejected God's mercy and trampled upon His law. Dark are the
records of human misery that earth has witnessed during its long centuries
of crime. The heart sickens, and the mind grows faint in contemplation.
Terrible have been the results of rejecting the authority of Heaven. But a
scene yet darker is presented in the revelations of the future. The records
of the past,--the long procession of tumults,

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conflicts, and revolutions, the "battle of the warrior . . . with confused
noise, and garments rolled in blood" (Isaiah 9:5),--what are these, in
contrast with the terrors of that day when the restraining Spirit of God
shall be wholly withdrawn from the wicked, no longer to hold in check the
outburst of human passion and satanic wrath! The world will then behold, as
never before, the results of Satan's rule.

But in that day, as in the time of Jerusalem's destruction, God's people
will be delivered, everyone that shall be found written among the living.
Isaiah 4:3. Christ has declared that He will come the second time to gather
His faithful ones to Himself: "Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn,
and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power
and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a
trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from
one end of heaven to the other." Matthew 24:30, 31. Then shall they that
obey not the gospel be consumed with the spirit of His mouth and be
destroyed with the brightness of His coming. 2 Thessalonians 2:8. Like
Israel of old the wicked destroy themselves; they fall by their iniquity. By
a life of sin, they have placed themselves so out of harmony with God, their
natures have become so debased with evil, that the manifestation of His
glory is to them a consuming fire.

Let men beware lest they neglect the lesson conveyed to them in the words of
Christ. As He warned His disciples of Jerusalem's destruction, giving them a
sign of the approaching ruin, that they might make their escape; so He has
warned the world of the day of final destruction and has given them tokens
of its approach, that all who will may flee from the wrath to come. Jesus
declares: "There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the
stars; and upon the earth distress of nations." Luke 21:25; Matthew 24:29;
Mark 13:24-26; Revelation 6:12-17. Those who behold these harbingers of His
coming are to "know that it is near, even

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at the doors." Matthew 24:33. "Watch ye therefore," are His words of
admonition. Mark 13:35. They that heed the warning shall not be left in
darkness, that that day should overtake them unawares. But to them that will
not watch, "the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." 1
Thessalonians 5:2-5.

The world is no more ready to credit the message for this time than were the
Jews to receive the Saviour's warning concerning Jerusalem. Come when it
may, the day of God will come unawares to the ungodly. When life is going on
in its unvarying round; when men are absorbed in pleasure, in business, in
traffic, in money-making; when religious leaders are magnifying the world's
progress and enlightenment, and the people are lulled in a false
security--then, as the midnight thief steals within the unguarded dwelling,
so shall sudden destruction come upon the careless and ungodly, "and they
shall not escape." Verse 3.