Prophecy on Jerusalem.

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Jews, and one day will restore again the kingdom of Israel. (Acts i. 6.) When God shall have visited His judgment for the rejection of His Son upon His people, by scattering them all over the universe, Jesus Christ will gather the twelve tribes of Israel again together, and through them dispense happiness to a renewed world. To Jerusalem and to the Jewish people He had said, Ye would not receive me, and now behold your house is left unto you desolate" (St. Matt. xxiii. 38); and when, on another occasion, "he came near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, 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." (St. Luke xix. 41-44.) Yet the Lord's retributive justice was tempered even then by His everlasting mercy, and this promise of certain restoration was given, "Jerusalem shall be

trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." (St. Luke xxi. 24.)

On Rome devolved the duty of carrying out the judgment pronounced on Jerusalem. This consummation, however, was preceded by a protracted period of peace and material welfare the like of which had not been enjoyed by the country since the reign of Solomon. But a short time before the final collapse of the Jewish commonwealth, the land is reported by all authorities to have been in a high state of cultivation, abounding in crops and produce of all kinds, and containing a large number of towns of various sizes. The Jews of that time, we are told by Josephus, their advocate, and by Tacitus, their sworn enemy, were distinguished by their physical strength, their moral courage, and their utter contempt of death. Even during the oppressive reign of Herod, the prosperity of the country seems to have steadily increased, and it continued apparently to augment until the very eve of the fulfilment of its doom. Thus our Saviour's words were verified in which He likened the proud city unto Sodom and Gomorrha, which were surprised by fire from heaven in the midst of their daily occupations and enjoyments.

Triumph of the Gospel.

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The Gospel of Christ, however, was destined to triumph, and the blood of its martyrs to be shed, before the ruthless hand of Rome brought desolation and devastation on Jerusalem and Judæa. But a short time previous to her destruction, the Jewish metropolis witnessed the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ, the martyrdom of St. Stephen, the conversion of Saul, the death of the two Jameses, and the institution of the first Christian synod within her walls. About seventy years after the birth of Jesus Christ, and about forty years after His prophecy of the final destruction of the temple, the new covenant eventually and definitely assumed the place until then held by the typical law that had received its fulfilment at Golgotha and accomplished its ends in the kingdom of God. In the year of our Lord 68, almost all the Apostles had finished their course both St. Paul and St. Peter had suffered martyrdom, and the tyrannic rule of Nero had become the more abominable by an ignominious persecution of the Christians at Rome. Of all the original promoters of the Gospel St. John alone survived.

CHAPTER V.

Herod's death.-Archelaus banished to Gaul.-Roman governors.→→ The Emperor Caligula-Massacres of the Jews in Egypt.—Pontius Pilate.-Philo and Apion.-The Emperor Claudius.—Nero.— Vespasian. The Zealots.-The Siege of Jotapota.-Subjugation of Galilee. Titus besieged Jerusalem.-Demolishing of the City and Temple.-The Fortress of Masada.

HEROD was not Jewish in his feelings, he encouraged foreign amusements and games, and those among the Jews who yielded to these temptations were called the Herodians, whom we find mentioned in Matthew xxii. 16, Mark iii. 6, xii. 13. He died of a horrible disease, yet even on his deathbed, in his greatest agony, he commanded one member of each Jewish family to be apprehended and put to death as soon as he himself should be gone, so that there might be an enforced mourning at his death in every house, for he knew very well that without this proceeding there would rather be universal rejoicing at the occurrence.

He was succeeded by his son Archelaus,

The Successors of Herod.

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A.D. 3, who, after nine years' reign, was, on the accusation of his enemies, cited to Rome. His case having been heard, he was condemned and banished to Gaul, while thenceforth Judæa formed but part of the Roman province of Syria, and was ruled by Roman governors. At this period the grand Sanhedrim was the highest court of law in Judæa, while the supreme political power of the country was vested in the Roman "procurator," a state of things which the Gospels, by many incidental expressions, describe with the minutest historic truthfulness. Two sons of Herod the Great were still reigning while their brother languished in Gaul, viz., Herod Antipas over Galilee, and Philip over Ituræa. Herod Antipas married Herodias, the wife of another of Herod's sons likewise called Philip, at whose instigation he slew John the Baptist. He is described as "the fox," in Luke xiii. 32, where our Lord says to the Pharisees, "Go ye, and tell that fox," &c. Before this same Herod Jesus Christ was sent by Pilate.

Of the first Roman governors who ruled over Judæa there is little to say; Marcus Coponius, Marcus Ambivius, Annius Rufus, Valerius, fol