habitants. At Alexandria, Tiberias Alexander turned two Roman legions, with 5,000 other soldiers, upon the Jews, with permission not only to kill them, but to plunder and burn their houses. And at Damascus, the inhabitants put to death 10,000 unarmed Jews in the short space of one hour. Truly these were "the days of vengeance," wars, and commotions;" and yet these terrible disasters are only said to be "the beginning of sorrows."

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4. Earthquakes, famines, and pestilences, were also foretold as immediately preceding this terrible visitation. Tacitus informs us of an earthquake at Rome, and of another at Apamea, in the reign of Claudius. He also mentions one at Laodicea in the reign of Nero; and Eusebius informs us that Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colosse were overturned by an earthquake. Famines are mentioned by Josephus-a very severe one prevailed over Judea, Rome, and Italy in the reign of Claudius, special mention of which is made in the Acts of the Apostles, and in the writings of various historians. And pestilences in the year 40 the Jews in Babylon suffered terribly from pestilence; and in the year 65, five years before the destruction of Jerusalem, we are told that there was great mortality among the Jews at Rome.

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5. Among these antecedent events we must not omit to notice the propagation of Christianity throughout the greater part of the Roman empire, called in Scripture, as well as by Roman writers, "the world." "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations." From the Acts of the Apostles, and from the testimony of heathen historians, we learn that, within thirty years of the death of Christ, the Gospel was preached in Idumea, Syria, and Mesopotamia; in Media and Parthia, and many parts of Asia Minor; in Egypt, Mauritania, Ethiopia, and the regions of Africa; in Greece and Italy, as far north as Scythia, and as far westward as Spain. In the very island which we inhabit there is some reason to believe that Christianity was planted in the days of the apostles, and before the destruction of Jerusalem.

The circumstances of the siege, with the destruction of the city and the temple, are then very minutely detailed by the Saviour; and so completely does the prophetic narrative harmonize with the unimpeachable testimony of impartial historians, that, for its elucidation, nothing more will be necessary than to compare the prophetic description with historical facts.

6. It was predicted that Jerusalem should be besieged by the Roman armies. "Ye shall see the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not." "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." "The abomination of desolation," or "the abomination that maketh desolate," as Daniel expresses it, very appropriately designated the Roman army, because upon their standards were depicted the images of the emperor and of their gods whom they worshipped. This "abomination which maketh desolate" is represented as "standing where it ought not." Josephus tells us that "the Romans brought their standard-the eagle-and their idols, into the midst of the temple, and into the sacred place" (book vi., chap. vi.).

After several unsuccessful attempts on the part of the Romans to take the city, Titus, so we are informed, who had command of the army, hit upon the following expedient-namely, to build a wall round about the whole city, and thus to close in the inhabitants on every side this he thought would be the only way to bring the Jews to subjection. By the diligence and emulation of the soldiers, the work was accomplished in an incredibly short space of time. "The length of the wall," says Josephus, "was forty furlongs, one only abated. At this wall without, were erected thirteen places to keep garrison, whose circumferences, put together, amounted to ten furlongs. The whole was completed in three days; so that what would naturally have required some months, was, by the diligence and emulation of the soldiers, done in so short an interval as is incredible." Thus were the Jews, by the erection of this wall, literally compassed round and kept in on every side.

7. The miseries that should befall the Jews when the city was thus besieged and taken, are also very minutely described by our Lord in this prophetic narrative. "These be the days of vengeance. There shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations." "Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." How literally these statements were verified at this time, the facts already referred to, in our illustrations of the fulfilment of the predictions of Moses, abundantly prove. And in addition to these it may be stated that while famine and pestilence were doing their deadly work in the city, some 60,000 Roman soldiers were unremitting in their exertions in endeavouring to effect its overthrow. At length-not until after several severe repulses-they succeeded, under the direction of Titus, in bringing down their high and fenced walls to the ground. The tower of Antonia was levelled, and on its ruins they placed their engines for the attack upon the temple. Irritated by the resistance they had encountered, the Roman soldiers, when they entered the city, gave no quarter. The Jews fell by thousands around and upon the holy hill. They burned the temple in defiance of the commands, the threats, and the resistance of their general, who, it would appear, was very desirous of preserving it. The whole city presented no picture but that of despair-no scene but that of horror. The aqueducts and city sewers were crowded as the last refuge of the hopeless. The Roman soldiers put all indiscriminately to the sword, and ceased not until they became faint and weary-overpowered with the work of destruction. During the siege it was computed that not fewer than 1,100,000 perished by the sword, by fire, or by famine; while 97,000 of the survivors were sold as slaves, or reserved to butcher each other, as gladiators, at the brutal games of the victors. Was there ever so concentrated a mass of misery? Could any prophecy be more faithfully or more awfully fulfilled? Truly these were "the days of vengeance," "Creat distress in the land, and wrath upon this people-they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations." One would think it impossible, even for the most stubborn infidel, not to be struck with the agreement between the prediction

and its accomplishment, as described by the historian. They are the exact counterparts of each other, and seem almost as if they had been written by the same person. Yet Josephus was not born until after the Saviour's crucifixion, and he was not a Christian, but a Jew, and certainly never intended to give the valuable testimony he has done to the truth of our religion.

8. But how fared the Christians that were in Jerusalem, under these terrible circumstances. Our Lord had enjoined upon them that, when they saw the signs of coming vengeance, "the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not," that then they which were in Judea should flee into the mountains. But how were they to effect their escape, when the city was thus besieged? Historians inform us that Cestius Gallus came against Jerusalem with a powerful army, and for six days continued his assaults upon the city, with every prospect of success; but contrary to expectation, and without any apparent cause, he raised the siege, and withdrew his whole force back to Scopus, a few furlongs off. The retreat was to him most disastrous, for the Jews, who had just before given up all for lost, elated by what they regarded as an interposition of God's special providence in their behalf, pursued the Roman army with incredible ardour and ferocity. They spoiled the camp of the enemy, carried off his war engines, and killed 3,000 of his troops. Thus, contrary to all human probability, an interval was afforded for escape. Many of the principal inhabitants of the city, we are told, availed themselves of it; and the Christians, remembering the words of their Lord, left the city and neighbourhood, and resorted for safety to the mountains of Palestine, which abounded in caves, and to Pella. When Vespasian a few years afterwards, accompanied by his son Titus, renewed these attacks, not one Christian was to be found in the doomed city; obedient to the injunctions of their Lord, all had made their escape, and thus, during the whole of this terrible visitation, "not a hair of their head did perish."

9. The predicted desolation of Jerusalem and the temple must claim a moment's attention, and then we have done. "And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles." "His disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." The stupendous size of some of the stones with which the temple was constructed were very remarkable. We are told that some of those employed in the foundation were forty cubits in length —that is, about sixty feet; and that the superstructure was worthy of such foundations, for there were stones in it, of the whitest marble, upwards of sixty feet in length, more than seven feet high, and nine feet broad. It was not, therefore, without good reason that the disciples called the attention of their Lord particularly to the uncommon magnitude of the stones of this superb edifice. But this prediction, that not one stone of this magnificent building should be left standing upon another, however unlikely at that time it might appear to them, was literally accomplished; for when Jerusalem was taken, Titus, we are told, ordered his soldiers to dig up the foundations, both of the city and the temple. The following is the statement of the

Jewish historian:-"Now, as soon as the army had no more people to slay and to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their prey, orders were given that they should demolish the entire city and temple, which were dug up to the foundations; so that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe that it had ever been inhabited." So complete was the desolation, and so literally was the prediction of our Lord, in relation to the stones of the temple, fulfilled.

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It was predicted of old concerning Zion, that it should be "ploughed as a field." (See Micah iii. 12.) In confirmation of this remarkable circumstance, Eusebius assures us that, in his day, the site of the temple was ploughed up by the Romans; that he himself saw it lying in ruins. And more recent travellers bear similar testimony to the literal fulfilment of the prophecy in this particular. Approaching the brow of the hill," says the writer of the "Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews," we found ourselves in the midst of a large field of barley. The crop was very thin, and the stalks very small, but no sight could be more interesting to us. We plucked some of the ears to carry home with us, as proofs addressed to the eye that God had fulfilled his true and faithful word—' Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field.' The palaces, the towers, the whole mass of warlike defences, have given way before the word of the Lord; and a crop of barley waves to the passing breeze, instead of a banner of war. On the steep sides of the hill we afterwards found flourishing cauliflowers, arranged in furrows, which had evidently been made by the plough." So literally and fully is the prophecy referred to, and twice recorded, accomplished.

Jerusalem was also to be "trodden down of the Gentiles." And from the destruction of the city by the Romans until this day, the fact is well known that Jerusalem has been oppressed and broken down by a succession of foreign masters, "trodden down of the Gentiles "the Romans, the Saracens, the Franks, the Mamelukes, and, last of all, by the Turks, to whom it is still subject. "The words," says a recent traveller, "are no longer applicable to Jerusalem -Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion.' She now wears a deserted, forlorn, and joyless appearance. The traveller hears, as he draws nigh, no sound of voice from within, and beholds no throngs of people at her gates. In the words of Stephens, all is still as death.' And the perfect stillness of the scene, when the traveller looks for the noise and bustle of life, falls heavily on his heart; and, at the moment, he would feel even the solitude of the desert a relief. How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!'"

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These calamities, it was furthermore predicted, would come upon Jerusalem before the generation then existing should pass away; and such, we know, was actually the fact. Forty years after the utterance of these predictions the high places of Jerusalem were desolated, and the sanctuary of Israel was laid waste-"not one stone left standing upon the other."

Such, then, was the predicted overthrow of Jerusalem, and such.

the agreement of these predictions with the actual facts of history. Having looked at the predictions on the one hand, and their fulfilment on the other- their fulfilment not recorded by a Christian, whose testimony might be suspected by the infidel, but by Josephus, a Jew, and acknowledged to be one of the most impartial and honest historians that ever wrote at any time-it may not be improper now to ask, Who is the more credulous-the man who believes that all this was the mere random and fortuitous result of chance and sagacious conjecture, or the man who holds that all these predictions were penned by the inspiration of God? Infidels pretend to be freethinkers; they boast that while believers in the Divine inspiration of the sacred writings are the mere slaves of education-mere credulous fanatics, they are freethinkers-that they have risen to the dignity of manhood. But in too many instances it has turned out that these boasted freethinkers-unbelievers in Divine inspiration, have been the victims of gross credulity. Can he be said to be a freethinker to think for himself, to read and infer from evidencewho looks at these predictions, and compares them with the actual facts of history, as given on the testimony of disinterested parties, and then says that the predictions are nothing more than random guesses and sagacious conjectures? A freethinker! the infidel, instead of being a freethinker, is only rather the slave to his prejudices and passions.

"He is the free man whom the truth makes free,

And all are slaves beside."

The exact and literal fulfilment of these predictions show clearly that the finger of God is there; that God's sanction and seal lie upon the face of the sacred volume.

The history utters a voice of solemn warning. At no previous period of their history, perhaps, were the Jews more attentive to the rites and ceremonies of their law than in that which just preceded the destruction of Jerusalem. They were, at this time, neither indifferent nor idolatrous; indeed, they seemed to adhere to the Divine injunctions, so far as the external observances of religious rites were concerned, with constancy, and alacrity, and cheerfulness. Then wherefore their overthrow? Why has the Lord done thus to this land and people? The reason is thus assigned by the Saviour :"If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin : but now they have no cloke for their sin. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father (John xv. 22, 24). Their great guilt, then, in rejecting the Saviour was that which brought down upon them this terrible retribution.

Let us listen to this voice of warning. Although living in this Christian land, and, like the ancient Jews, it may be, attending with Pharisaic exactness to the external requirements of religion, there is a possibility—a fearful possibility-of our involving ourselves in the guilt, and bringing down upon ourselves the terrible doom of those who "crucify to themselves afresh the Son of God, and put him to an open shame." If we now refuse to listen to the teachings of the Saviour, although no heavy temporal judgments may overtake us, such as befell the Jews, yet there is a "wrath to come"-" a fearful