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 man," replied Gebiha, "thou believest in a creation—well, then, if what never before existed, exists, why may not that which once existed, exist again?"

Sanhedrin, 91a.

The Sufferings of the Jews Under Hadrian

I

all the tyrants that afflicted and persecuted the Jewish nation, none ever acted with greater cruelty toward them, nor made them drink deeper of the bitter cup of affliction, than the Emperor Hadrian. Provoked by their repeated endeavors to shake off the iron yoke which he and his predecessors had imposed upon them; and exasperated at their heroic resistance during the siege of Bethar, which city they valiantly defended for a considerable time, he conceived a deadly hatred against them. After causing the most dreadful slaughter among them, he ordered vast numbers to be publicly sold for slaves and so harassed and distressed the miserable few that were unhappy enough to escape his immediate vengeance, as to fill their minds with despair. Hence the detestation in which his memory was held among the early Jewish writers—many of whom, most likely, felt his oppressions, and were eye-witnesses to the calamities of their brethren. The most diabolical acts of tyranny are ascribed to him; and his