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 spared. But God  had  otherwise  decreed,  and  a  soldier, impelled,  as  he  declared,  by  an  irresistible  impulse, applied  a  brand  to  the  sacred  edifice,  and  so literally  was  Christ's  prophecy  fulfilled  that  not  a stone  upon  a  stone  was  left. With one  fell  blow  the Jewish Temple,  the  Jewish  city,  and  the  Jewish  nation were utterly  and  forever  crushed. And why? Because they knew  not  the  time  of  their  visitation,  because they  knew  not  God. " Amen,  I  say  to  you," says Christ,  "if  any  man  deny  Me  before  men  on earth,  I  will  deny  him  before  My  Father  who  is  in heaven."

But Rome,  you  say,  knew  not  the  one  true  God, and resisted  Christianity  to  the  death,  and  yet  behold  her,  God's  chosen  agent  and  the  mistress  of  the world! Ah, Brethren,  to  be  chosen  by  God  for  the accomplishment of  His  designs  is  not  always  proof of God's  favor  or  God's  love. Amid the  ruins  of  the Roman forum  stands  the  arch  of  Titus,  bearing  on its  sculptured  sides  the  emblems  of  his  eastern  victories, but  Rome,  oh,  where  is  Rome? All her  pomp of yesterday  is  to-day  one  with  Ninive  and  Tyre. Judge of  the  nations,  spare  us  yet,  lest  we  forget - lest we  forget! How little  reckoned  they  whose genius erected  that  glorious  arch,  or  whose  hands outlined its  graceful  symmetry,  that  they  therein  embodied a  lasting  monumental  proof  of  God's  supremacy, of  Christ's  divinity,  and  of  the  evanescence of purely  earthly  glory! The Rome  of  Titus  and Vespasian lies  to-day  beneath  the  feet  of  Christian Rome, because  she  acknowledged  not  the  God  of  her