The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-04-07

still more cruelty treated if they consumed
it. Wives would steal the last morsel from
their husbands, children from parents,
mothers from children, and there were in
stances of dead infants being eaten by
their parents So that the ancient proph-
ecy, in which Moses had described the
punishment of the unbelieving jews was
fulfilled (Deut xviii, 56-57.)
At length the dead accumulated so fast
that they were left unburied, and were
cast off the walls by thousands down into
the valleys. As Titus went his rounds
and saw the putrefying masses, he wept,
and, stretching his hands to heaven, called
God to witness that this was not his work
BY slow degrees one wall after another
was battered down, but so desperate was
the defense of the Jews that it was three
months after the lower city was taken be-
fore the Romans gained possession of the
temple, and in its destruction, completed
the fail of Jerusalem A. d. 10 Titus
would have saved the noble edi6ce but was
unable to restrain the rage Of his soldiery,
and the temple was burnt
Josephus computes the number of his
eountrymen who persisted during the war
at more than 100000, with the total of
more than 100000 prisoners. Thou
sands of the latter We're sent to toll in the
Egyptian mines; but such were their num-
beers that they were offered for sale ''till no
man would buy them, and then they were
sent into different provinces as presents,
where they were consumed by the sword,
or by wild beasts in the amphitheatres.
With the destruction of Jerusalem and
its famous temple Israel ceased to be a
nation, and thus was inflicted the doom
which the unbeieving Jews invoked when
they cried ont, His blood be on us and
on our children"
In the year LIB. during the reign of
the Emperor Adrian, another war occurred
with the Jews, who, incensed at the intro
duction of Roman Idolatry into Jerusalem,
were excited to revolt by an impostor who
called himself BARI ochab. THE son of
star and who pretended to be the ex-
pected Messiah.
Over 100000 devoted followers soon
hocked to the Jewish standard, and for
time gained important advantages, but
Severus, afterwards emperor, being sent
against them, in "A sanguinary war of three
years duration he accomplished the almost
total destruction of the Jewish nation
More than 800. 900 Jews are estimated TO
have fallen by the sword during this period,
and those who survived were scattered
abroad among all the nations Of the earth.
The Emperor Adrian caused all the re-
buildings to be demolished and
erected new city, which he called Aeia
CaTitolina.
Upon the accession of the Emperor
Julian, commonly called 'the apostate,'
on account of his relapse from Christianity
into paganism, he conceived the scheme of
striking a deadly blow to the rising cause
of Christianity by ordering the temple of
Jerusalem to be rebuilt, hoping thus to
falsify the language of prophecy and the
truth of Revelation But although the
Jews were invited from all provinces of
the empire to assemble once more on /
The holy mountain of their fathers, and .
every effort was made to secure the /
success Of the undertaking, both by
the emperor and the Jews themselves, /
the work did not prosper, and was finally
abandoned in despair, 4 number of
both christian and pagan. declare
hat the work was frustrated in consequence |
IF balls of fire that burst from the earth .
md alarmed the wOrkmen who were EN-
ployed in digging the foundations. '*
Whether the phenomena, so gravely and
lbundantly attended, was supernatural or
otherwise does not affect the truth of the
that pronounced desolation upon
Jerusalem
The most powerful monarch of the /
earth, stimulated by pride, passion, and
and aided by Jealous people,
attempted to erect building in one of his
sites, but found all his efforts vain, because
the finger of God was there.
1t was only in the commencement of the
fourth century, after Constantine had en-
1raced Christianity, that the name of Je-
rusalem was again restored to the city.
*The probable explanation of the remark
able incidents attending the attempt of
Julian to rebuild the temple is that the
numerous subterranean excavations, etc, |
below and around the ruins of the temple, |
which had been neglected for near three 1
centuries had become filled within fiamma
Die air which taking fire from the torches
Of the workmen, repealed by terrific explo
sions those who attempted to explore the |
ruins. The similarity was on the order OF
the fire-damp of the mines of the present |
day. Ptkesciue, Nd.
Hold on, Boys!