given His disciples warning, and all who believed His words watched for
the promised sign. “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies,”
said Jesus, “then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them
which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the
midst of it depart out.”(41) After the Romans under Cestius had surrounded
the city, they unexpectedly abandoned the siege when everything seemed
favorable for an immediate attack. The besieged, despairing of successful
resistance, were on the point of surrender, when the Roman general
withdrew his forces without the least apparent reason. But God’s merciful
providence was directing events for the good of His own people. The
promised sign had been given to the waiting Christians, and now an
opportunity was afforded for all who would, to obey the Saviour’s warning.
Events were so overruled that neither Jews nor Romans should hinder the
flight of the Christians. Upon the retreat of Cestius, the Jews, sallying
from Jerusalem, pursued after his retiring army; and while both forces
were thus fully engaged, the Christians had an opportunity to leave the
city. At this time the country also had been cleared of enemies who might
have endeavored to intercept them. At the time of the siege, the Jews were
assembled at Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, and thus the
Christians throughout the land were able to make their escape unmolested.
Without delay they fled to a place of safety,—the city of Pella, in the
land of Perea, beyond Jordan.
The Jewish forces, pursuing after Cestius and his army, fell upon their
rear with such fierceness as to threaten them with total destruction. It
was with great difficulty that the Romans succeeded in making their
retreat. The Jews escaped almost without loss, and with their spoils
returned in triumph to Jerusalem. Yet this apparent success brought them
only evil. It inspired them with that spirit of stubborn resistance to the
Romans which speedily brought unutterable woe upon the doomed city.
Terrible were the calamities that fell upon Jerusalem when the siege was
resumed by Titus. The city was invested at the time of the Passover, when
millions of Jews were assembled within its walls. Their stores of
provision, which if carefully preserved would have supplied the
inhabitants for years, had previously been destroyed through the jealousy
and revenge of the contending factions, and now all the horrors of
starvation were experienced. A measure of wheat was sold for a talent. So
fierce were the pangs of hunger that men would gnaw the leather of their
belts and sandals and the covering of their shields. Great numbers of the
people would steal out at night to gather wild plants growing outside the
city walls, though many were seized and put to death with cruel torture,
and often those who returned in safety were robbed of what they had
gleaned at so great peril. The most inhuman tortures were inflicted by
those in power, to force from the want-stricken people the last scanty
supplies which they might have concealed. And these cruelties were not
infrequently practised by men who were themselves well fed, and who were
merely desirous of laying up a store of provision for the future.
Thousands perished from famine and pestilence. Natural affection seemed to
have been destroyed. Husbands robbed their wives, and wives their
husbands. Children would be seen snatching the food from the mouths of
their aged parents. The question of the prophet, “Can a woman forget her
sucking child?”(42) received the answer within the walls of that doomed
city, “The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they
were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”(43)
Again was fulfilled the warning prophecy given fourteen centuries before:
“The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set
the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her
eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and
toward her daughter, ... and toward her children which she shall bear: 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.”(44)
The Roman leaders endeavored to strike terror to the Jews, and thus cause
them to surrender. Those prisoners who resisted when taken, were scourged,
tortured, and crucified before the wall of the city. Hundreds were daily
put to death in this manner, and the dreadful work continued until, along
the valley of Jehoshaphat and at Calvary, crosses were erected in so great
numbers that there was scarcely room to move among them. So terribly was
visited that awful imprecation uttered before the judgment-seat of Pilate:
“His blood be on us, and on our children.”(45)
Titus would willingly have put an end to the fearful scene, and thus have
spared Jerusalem the full measure of her doom. He was filled with horror
as he saw the bodies of the dead lying in heaps in the valleys. Like one
entranced, he looked from the crest of Olivet upon the magnificent temple,
and gave command that not one stone of it be touched. Before attempting to
gain possession of this stronghold, he made an earnest appeal to the
Jewish leaders not to force him to defile the sacred place with blood. If
they would come forth and fight in any other place, no Roman should
violate the sanctity of the temple. Josephus himself, in a most eloquent
appeal, entreated them to surrender, to save themselves, their city, and
their place of worship. But his words were answered with bitter curses.
Darts were hurled at him, their last human mediator, as he stood pleading
with them. The Jews had rejected the entreaties of the Son of God, and now
expostulation and entreaty only made them more determined to resist to the
last. In vain were the efforts of Titus to save the temple; One greater
than he had declared that not one stone was to be left upon another.
The blind obstinacy of the Jewish leaders, and the detestable crimes
perpetrated within the besieged city, excited the horror and indignation
of the Romans, and Titus at last decided to take the temple by storm. He
determined, however, that if possible it should be saved from destruction.
But his commands were disregarded. After he had retired to his tent at
night, the Jews, sallying from the temple, attacked the soldiers without.
In the struggle, a firebrand was flung by a soldier through an opening in
the porch, and immediately the cedar-lined chambers about the holy house
were in a blaze. Titus rushed to the place, followed by his generals and
legionaries, and commanded the soldiers to quench the flames. His words
were unheeded. In their fury the soldiers hurled blazing brands into the
chambers adjoining the temple, and then with their swords they slaughtered
in great numbers those who had found shelter there. Blood flowed down the
temple steps like water. Thousands upon thousands of Jews perished. Above
the sound of battle, voices were heard shouting, “Ichabod!”—the glory is
departed.
“Titus found it impossible to check the rage of the soldiery; he entered
with his officers, and surveyed the interior of the sacred edifice. The
splendor filled them with wonder; and as the flames had not yet penetrated
to the holy place, he made a last effort to save it, and springing forth,
again exhorted the soldiers to stay the progress of the conflagration. The
centurion Liberalis endeavored to force obedience with his staff of
office; but even respect for the emperor gave way to the furious animosity
against the Jews, to the fierce excitement of battle, and to the
insatiable hope of plunder. The soldiers saw everything around them
radiant with gold, which shone dazzlingly in the wild light of the flames;
they supposed that incalculable treasures were laid up in the sanctuary. A
soldier, unperceived, thrust a lighted torch between the hinges of the
door: the whole building was in flames in an instant. The blinding smoke
and fire forced the officers to retreat, and the noble edifice was left to
its fate.
“It was an appalling spectacle to the Roman—what was it to the Jew? The
whole summit of the hill which commanded the city, blazed like a volcano.
One after another the buildings fell in, with a tremendous crash, and were
swallowed up in the fiery abyss. The roofs of cedar were like sheets of
flame; the gilded pinnacles shone like spikes of red light; the gate
towers sent up tall columns of flame and smoke. The neighboring hills were
lighted up; and dark groups of people were seen watching in horrible
anxiety the progress of the destruction: the walls and heights of the
upper city were crowded with faces, some pale with the agony of despair,
others scowling unavailing vengeance. The shouts of the Roman soldiery as
they ran to and fro, and the howlings of the insurgents who were perishing
in the flames, mingled with the roaring of the conflagration and the
thundering sound of falling timbers. The echoes of the mountains replied
or brought back the shrieks of the people on the heights; all along the
walls resounded screams and wailings; men who were expiring with famine
rallied their remaining strength to utter a cry of anguish and desolation.
“The slaughter within was even more dreadful than the spectacle from
without. Men and women, old and young, insurgents and priests, those who
fought and those who entreated mercy, were hewn down in indiscriminate
carnage. The number of the slain exceeded that of the slayers. The
legionaries had to clamber over heaps of dead to carry on the work of
extermination.”(46)
After the destruction of the temple, the whole city soon fell into the
hands of the Romans. The leaders of the Jews forsook their impregnable
towers, and Titus found them solitary. He gazed upon them with amazement,
and declared that God had given them into his hands; for no engines,
however powerful, could have prevailed against those stupendous
battlements. Both the city and the temple were razed to their foundations,
and the ground upon which the holy house had stood was “plowed like a
field.”(47) In the siege and the slaughter that followed, more than a
million of the people perished; the survivors were carried away as
captives, sold as slaves, dragged to Rome to grace the conqueror’s
triumph, thrown to wild beasts in the amphitheaters, or scattered as
homeless wanderers throughout the earth.
The Jews had forged their own fetters; they had filled for themselves the
cup of vengeance. In the utter destruction that befell them as a nation,
and in all the woes that followed them in their dispersion, they were but
reaping the harvest which their own hands had sown. Says the prophet, “O
Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself;” “for thou hast fallen by thine
iniquity.”(48) Their sufferings are often represented as a punishment
visited upon them by the direct decree of God. It is thus that the great
deceiver seeks to conceal his own work. By stubborn rejection of divine
love and mercy, the Jews had caused the protection of God to be withdrawn
from them, and Satan was permitted to rule them according to his will. The
horrible cruelties enacted in the destruction of Jerusalem are a
demonstration of Satan’s vindictive power over those who yield to his
control.
We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protection
which we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind
from passing fully under the control of Satan. The disobedient and
unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God’s mercy and
long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil
one. But when men pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint is
removed. God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the
sentence against transgression; but He leaves the rejecters of His mercy
to themselves, to reap that which they have sown. Every ray of light
rejected, every warning despised or unheeded, every passion indulged,
every transgression of the law of God, is a seed sown, which yields its
unfailing harvest. The Spirit of God, persistently resisted, is at last
withdrawn from the sinner, and then there is left no power to control the
evil passions of the soul, and no protection from the malice and enmity of
Satan. The destruction of Jerusalem is a fearful and solemn warning to all
who are trifling with the offers of divine grace, and resisting the
pleadings of divine mercy. Never was there given a more decisive testimony
to God’s hatred of sin, and to the certain punishment that will fall upon
the guilty.
The Saviour’s prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments upon
Jerusalem is to have another fulfilment, of which that terrible desolation
was but a faint shadow. In the fate of the chosen city we may behold the
doom of a world that has rejected God’s mercy and trampled upon His law.
Dark are the records of human misery that earth has witnessed during its
long centuries of crime. The heart sickens and the mind grows faint in
contemplation. Terrible have been the results of rejecting the authority
of Heaven. But a scene yet darker is presented in the revelations of the
future. The records of the past,—the long procession of tumults,
conflicts, and revolutions, the “battle of the warrior, with confused
noise, and garments rolled in blood,”(49)—what are these, in contrast with
the terrors of that day when the restraining Spirit of God shall be wholly
withdrawn from the wicked, no longer to hold in check the outburst of
human passion and satanic wrath! The world will then behold, as never
before, the results of Satan’s rule.
But in that day, as in the time of Jerusalem’s destruction, God’s people
will be delivered, “every one that shall be found written among the
living.” Christ has declared that He will come the second time, to gather
His faithful ones to Himself: “Then shall all the tribes of the earth
mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great
sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four
winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”(50) Then shall they that obey
not the gospel be consumed with the spirit of His mouth, and be destroyed
with the brightness of His coming.(51) Like Israel of old, the wicked
destroy themselves; they fall by their iniquity. By a life of sin, they
have placed themselves so out of harmony with God, their natures have
become so debased with evil, that the manifestation of His glory is to
them a consuming fire.
Let men beware lest they neglect the lesson conveyed to them in the words
of Christ. As He warned His disciples of Jerusalem’s destruction, giving
them a sign of the approaching ruin, that they might make their escape; so
He has warned the world of the day of final destruction, and has given
them tokens of its approach, that all who will may flee from the wrath to
come. Jesus declares, “There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon,
and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations.”(52) Those who
behold these harbingers of His coming are to “know that it is near, even
at the doors.”(53) “Watch ye therefore,”(54) are His words of admonition.
They that heed the warning shall not be left in darkness, that that day
should overtake them unawares. But to them that will not watch, “the day
of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”(55)
The world is no more ready to credit the message for this time than were
the Jews to receive the Saviour’s warning concerning Jerusalem. Come when
it may, the day of God will come unawares to the ungodly. When life is
going on in its unvarying round; when men are absorbed in pleasure, in
business, in traffic, in money-making; when religious leaders are
magnifying the world’s progress and enlightenment, and the people are
lulled in a false security,—then, as the midnight thief steals within the
unguarded dwelling, so shall sudden destruction come upon the careless and
ungodly, “and they shall not escape.”(56)
2. PERSECUTION IN THE FIRST CENTURIES.
[Illustration: Chapter header.]
When Jesus revealed to His disciples the fate of Jerusalem and the scenes
of the second advent, He foretold also the experience of His people from
the time when He should be taken from them, to His return in power and
glory for their deliverance. From Olivet the Saviour beheld the storms
about to fall upon the apostolic church; and penetrating deeper into the
future, His eye discerned the fierce, wasting tempests that were to beat
upon His followers in the coming ages of darkness and persecution. In a
few brief utterances of awful significance, He foretold the portion which
the rulers of this world would mete out to the church of God.(57) The
followers of Christ must tread the same path of humiliation, reproach, and
suffering which their Master trod. The enmity that burst forth against the
world’s Redeemer, would be manifested against all who should believe on
His name.
The history of the early church testified to the fulfilment of the
Saviour’s words. The powers of earth and hell arrayed themselves against
Christ in the person of His followers. Paganism foresaw that should the
gospel triumph, her temples and altars would be swept away; therefore she
summoned her forces to destroy Christianity. The fires of persecution were
kindled. Christians were stripped of their possessions, and driven from
their homes. They “endured a great fight of afflictions.”(58) They “had
trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and
imprisonment.”(59) Great numbers sealed their testimony with their blood.
Noble and slave, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, were alike slain
without mercy.
These persecutions, beginning under Nero about the time of the martyrdom
of Paul, continued with greater or less fury for centuries. Christians
were falsely accused of the most dreadful crimes, and declared to be the
cause of great calamities—famine, pestilence, and earthquake. As they
became the objects of popular hatred and suspicion, informers stood ready,
for the sake of gain, to betray the innocent. They were condemned as
rebels against the empire, as foes of religion, and pests to society.
Great numbers were thrown to wild beasts or burned alive in the
amphitheaters. Some were crucified; others were covered with the skins of
wild animals, and thrust into the arena to be torn by dogs. Their
punishment was often made the chief entertainment at public fêtes. Vast
multitudes assembled to enjoy the sight, and greeted their dying agonies
with laughter and applause.
Wherever they sought refuge, the followers of Christ were hunted like
beasts of prey. They were forced to seek concealment in desolate and
solitary places. “Destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was
not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and
caves of the earth.”(60) The catacombs afforded shelter for thousands.
Beneath the hills outside the city of Rome, long galleries had been
tunneled through earth and rock; the dark and intricate network of
passages extended for miles beyond the city walls. In these underground
retreats, the followers of Christ buried their dead; and here also, when
suspected and proscribed, they found a home. When the Lifegiver shall
awaken those who have fought the good fight, many a martyr for Christ’s
sake will come forth from those gloomy caverns.
Under the fiercest persecution, these witnesses for Jesus kept their faith
unsullied. Though deprived of every comfort, shut away from the light of
the sun, making their home in the dark but friendly bosom of the earth,
they uttered no complaint. With words of faith, patience, and hope, they
encouraged one another to endure privation and distress. The loss of every
earthly blessing could not force them to renounce their belief in Christ.
Trials and persecution were but steps bringing them nearer their rest and
their reward.
Like God’s servants of old, many were “tortured, not accepting
deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.”(61) These
called to mind the words of their Master, that when persecuted for
Christ’s sake, they were to be exceeding glad, for great would be their
reward in heaven; for so the prophets had been persecuted before them.
They rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer for the truth, and
songs of triumph ascended from the midst of crackling flames. Looking
upward by faith, they saw Christ and angels leaning over the battlements
of heaven, gazing upon them with the deepest interest, and regarding their
steadfastness with approval, A voice came down to them from the throne of
God, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of
life.”(62)
In vain were Satan’s efforts to destroy the church of Christ by violence.
The great controversy in which the disciples of Jesus yielded up their
lives, did not cease when these faithful standard-bearers fell at their
post. By defeat they conquered. God’s workmen were slain, but His work
went steadily forward. The gospel continued to spread, and the number of
its adherents to increase. It penetrated into regions that were
inaccessible, even to the eagles of Rome. Said a Christian, expostulating
with the heathen rulers who were urging forward the persecution: You may
“kill us, torture us, condemn us.... Your injustice is the proof that we
are innocent.... Nor does your cruelty ... avail you.” It was but a
stronger invitation to bring others to their persuasion. “The oftener we
are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians
is seed.”(63)
Thousands were imprisoned and slain; but others sprung up to fill their
places. And those who were martyred for their faith were secured to
Christ, and accounted of Him as conquerors. They had fought the good
fight, and they were to receive the crown of glory when Christ should
come. The sufferings which they endured brought Christians nearer to one
another and to their Redeemer. Their living example and dying testimony
were a constant witness for the truth; and where least expected, the
subjects of Satan were leaving his service, and enlisting under the banner
of Christ.
Satan therefore laid his plans to war more successfully against the
government of God, by planting his banner in the Christian church. If the
followers of Christ could be deceived, and led to displease God, then
their strength, fortitude, and firmness would fail, and they would fall an
easy prey.
The great adversary now endeavored to gain by artifice what he had failed
to secure by force. Persecution ceased, and in its stead were substituted
the dangerous allurements of temporal prosperity and worldly honor.
Idolaters were led to receive a part of the Christian faith, while they
rejected other essential truths. They professed to accept Jesus as the Son
of God, and to believe in His death and resurrection; but they had no
conviction of sin, and felt no need of repentance or of a change of heart.
With some concessions on their part, they proposed that Christians should
make concessions, that all might unite on the platform of belief in
Christ.
Now the church was in fearful peril. Prison, torture, fire, and sword were
blessings in comparison with this. Some of the Christians stood firm,
declaring that they could make no compromise. Others were in favor of
yielding or modifying some features of their faith, and uniting with those
who had accepted a part of Christianity, urging that this might be the
means of their full conversion. That was a time of deep anguish to the
faithful followers of Christ. Under a cloak of pretended Christianity,
Satan was insinuating himself into the church, to corrupt their faith, and
turn their minds from the word of truth.
Most of the Christians at last consented to lower their standard, and a
union was formed between Christianity and paganism. Although the
worshipers of idols professed to be converted, and united with the church,
they still clung to their idolatry, only changing the objects of their
worship to images of Jesus, and even of Mary and the saints. The foul
leaven of idolatry, thus brought into the church, continued its baleful
work. Unsound doctrines, superstitious rites, and idolatrous ceremonies
were incorporated into her faith and worship. As the followers of Christ
united with idolaters, the Christian religion became corrupted, and the
church lost her purity and power. There were some, however, who were not
misled by these delusions. They still maintained their fidelity to the
Author of truth, and worshiped God alone.