In conformity with the prediction of the Lord Jesus, that of the magnificent buildings of the Temple "not one stone should be left upon another," Titus issued orders that the entire city and Temple should be demolished, with the exception of three

towers in Zion, and part of the western wall, which were spared to afford a shelter to the garrison whom he intended to leave. So well did the soldiers perform their work, that the city was "dug up to its foundations, so that there was left nothing to make those who came thither believe it had ever been inhabited."

Therefore 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. Mic. iii. 12.

Thus fell Jerusalem, the City of the great King: and Titus having sacrificed to his senseless idols, and ascribed to them the success for which he had been raised up by the Living God, and having distributed rewards and spoils in profusion to his army, departed from the desolate scene to Cæsarea, leaving the tenth legion as a garrison over the ruins. Thence he made a triumphal progress through the cities of Syria, his steps everywhere marked by the blood of the poor captive Jews, "poured out like water." For wherever the imperial savage came, thousands of his prisoners were tortured in a thousand different ways; slain in cold blood, made to fight as gladiators with each other, or thrown to lions and tigers in the amphitheatres, for the amusement of the populace. Such was the mercy of one, whom it has been the fashion to call clement, the delight of the human race, &c. His apostate flatterer has done his best to hide the darker features of his character; but the facts that even he has recorded enable us to discover that, whatever he might be to others, in the fold of Judah he ravened as a wolf; in the heritage of God, given over into his hand, he was indeed " a beast dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, that devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet."

We naturally feel an interest in the fate of the renowned leaders, John of Gischala, and Simon the

son of Gioras. The former, pressed by famine in the caverns to which he had retired, surrendered to the Romans, and was condemned to perpetual imprisonment. The latter struggled more fiercely with his fate. He took with him into the caverns a number of his adherents, with implements for mining, and a stock of provisions, hoping to be able to excavate a passage for himself through the base of the mountain. He found this, however, a hopeless task; and after the departure of Titus he suddenly appeared like a spectre rising out of the ground, clothed in a white robe, over which was thrown a purple cloak. The Roman soldiery were awed at first at the apparition, but soon apprehended him, when he demanded to see their commander. On being brought before Terentius Rufus, the captain of the legion, he declared his name and quality; and was then conveyed to Cæsarea to await the pleasure of Titus.

The appearance of these terrible leaders, the very impersonation of the insurrection, out of the subterranean caverns, speaking in unwonted tones of humility and abject submission "out of the ground," seems to be a very striking accomplishment of a prophecy, many of the terms of which manifestly assign its application to the siege and desolation which we are now narrating.

Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices. Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel. And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee. And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out

of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust. Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly. Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. Isa. xxix. 1-6.

We shall not describe the pompous pageant which accompanied Vespasian and Titus on their triumphal entry into Rome. All that could aggrandize Rome

and its idol demons, all that could dishonour the broken people of Israel and Jehovah, was here accumulated in a gorgeous show, which Josephus, apostate as he was, could describe without an expression of sympathy for his bleeding country, without a tear of sorrow for his trampled people, or a word of disapprobation at the insults offered to his God. Among the spoils were the golden table of the shewbread, and the seven-branched candlestick of gold, that had been snatched from the sanctuary of

God; and after these was carried the copy of the Law, wrapped in its splendid coverings; a trophy whose preciousness, greater than that of gold and silver, they who carried it little knew how to appreciate. The unhappy son of Gioras was led in chains at the chariot wheels of the victors; he was led to the Forum, inhumanly tortured as he was dragged along, and there at length slain. Thus fell one who, whatever his crimes (and we must remember that they are narrated by one whose interest it was to blacken the portrait), at least identified the fate of Jerusalem with his own, devoted his utmost energies to her defence, and died for her sake; scorning to purchase, like his renegade biographer, his own ease and safety at the price of his national faith.

On the very spot where this cruel execution was perpetrated, a triumphal arch was erected, which has survived to this day. Among the sculptured bas-reliefs, with which this "Arch of Titus" is adorned, we may still trace with peculiar interest the record of the gorgeous ovation. There is the candlestick with its seven sconces, the table, the silver trumpets, and other furniture of the spoiled Temple; and then marches the procession of melancholy captives, bearing aloft upon their shoulders their own most precious things.

The reduction of two or three strong, but unimportant mountain fortresses in Judea, where the Jews sternly maintained their resistance to Rome, occupied two or three years. At length all was over; and the now desolate land, once the Lord's he