Page:Light and truth.djvu/237

Rh Humanity seems ready to sink at the recital of the woful events of that day. No words can reach the horrors of the situation of the female part of the community at that period. Such scenes force upon our recollection the tender pathetic address of our Saviour to the pious females who followed him, going to the cross: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me ; but weep for yourselves and for your children; for behold the days are coming, in which they shall say. Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts that never gave suck." Moses had long predicted this very scene.— "The tender and delicate woman among you, (said he,) who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness; her eye shall be evil towards her young one, and toward her children, which she shall bare; for she shall eat them, for want of all things, secretly in the siege and straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates." Probably the history of the world will not afford a parallel to this. God prepared peculiar judgments for peculiarly horrid crimes! "These be the days of vengeance; that all things that are written may be fulfilled." Josephus declares, that if there had not been many credible witnesses of that awful fact, he never would have recorded it; for, said he, "such a shocking violation of nature never has been perpetrated by any Greek or barbarian."

While famine thus spread desolation, the Romans finally succeeded in removing part of the inner wall, and in possessing themselves of the high and commanding tower of Antonia, which seemed to overlook the temple. Titus with his counsel of war had formed a determination to save the temple, to grace his conquest, and remain an ornament to his empire. But God had not so determined. And "though there be many devices in man's heart; nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." A Roman soldier, violating the general order of Titus, succeeded in hurling a brand of fire into the golden window of the temple; and soon [as righteous heaven would have it!] the sacred edifice was in flames. The Jews perceiving this, rushed with horrid outcries to extinguish the fire. Titus, too, flew to the spot in his chariot, with his chief officers and legions. With loud command, and every token of