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Galilee were seen "vine-stocks a foot and nalf in diameter, forming by their twining branches vast arches, and extensive ceilings of verdure. A cluster of grapes, two or three feet in length, will give an abundant supper to a whole family."

22. The grapes were gathered, and placed in a vat or press, and were then trodden down by their feet, the juice being forced out from a spout at the side of the vat. To this process continual allusion is made in the Scriptures. The Saviour is represented as "treading the winepress alone," his "apparel being red," and "his garments like him that treadeth in the wine-vat" --significant of his triumph over his enemies.

23. The treading out of the grapes was a lively and exhilarating employment—a scene of extravagant joy and shouting. In a terrible prophecy allusion is made to this: "The Lord shall mightily roar from his habitation, he shall shout as they that tread the grapes." Jer. XXV, 30.

24. In the temple at Jerusalem, above and around the gate that led from the porch to the holy place, was a richly carved vine. Its branches, tendrils, and leaves, were of the finest gold; the stalks of the bunches were of the length of the human form, and the bunches hanging upon them were of costly jewels. Herod first placed it there, and the rich Jews from time to time added to its embellishments. This vine, valued at twelve millions of dollars, must have been

looked upon as of uncommon importance, and of sacred meaning, by the Jews.

25. It may have been in the presence of this splendid vine- —on the evening of the passover, when it was illumined by the lights of the temple, and the eyes of his disciples were gazing upon it with rapture as they entered into the temple-that Jesus commenced that beautiful address, "I am the true Vine." How impressive and pertinent must this conversation have appeared, under these circumstances!

26. Through the scarcity of fuel, everything that could possibly be gathered was used for the fire. Withered and broken branches of the vine were devoted to this purpose. Thus says our Lord: "If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them and cast them in the fire, and they are burned."

27. The vine shares with the lily and the wheat field in affording subjects for the parables of our Lord; and beyond all the fruits of the earth has he honored and hallowed this, by making it the symbol of his "spilt blood."

CHAPTER XIIJ

JERUSALEM AND THE JEWS, FROM THE CRU CIFIXION UNTIL THE PRESENT TIME.

1. JUDEA, with the rest of Palestine, continued after the Roman conquest, to be governed by officers appointed by the Roman emperors. Many of these officers were men of cruel and greedy dispositions, and continual and bloody affrays were arising between the goaded and oppressed people and the mercenary bands which held them in subjection. At length, in the reign of Nero, in the year of our Lord 66, Florus became governor. This brutal and sordid officer, treating them with even more cruelty than his predecessors, the Jews, esteeming death to be no worse than their present sufferings, openly revolted; and that struggle commenced, which only ended in their memorable destruction, as a nation, by Titus.

2. The war was commenced in Galilee, where Josephus for a long time withstood the Roman arms, but was eventually taken prisoner. Before the siege of Jerusalem, the situation of the country, and especially of the city, was truly deplorable. Jerusalem was infested with robbers and assassins, who openly, at mid-day, plundered the houses, and murdered the in habitants. Added to this, it was in a state of fearful anarchy and confusion. If being the season of the passover, two or three millions

had collected in the city. Three powerful fac tions divided the population, and fortified different sections of the city against each other. By their murderous sallies they filled the streets with blood, and with the mangled remains of their brethren. The unburied bodies soon caused a treadful pestilence, which carried off immense numbers.

3. At this time, Titus, the son of the then reigning Roman emperor, Vespasian, and who afterward succeeded his father, appeared before the walls with his vast army, and attempted, by very favorable terms, to induce a peaceful surrender. But the people, maddened by their sufferings, and hardened by the bloody scenes of which they were continual spectators, treated all his offers with scorn. According to the prophecy of Christ, a trench was dug around the walls, and the city was encompassed on every side.

4. "During this celebrated siege there were no less than three earthquakes; and an aurora borealis terrified the inhabitants with forms which their fears and astonishment converted into prodigies of enemies fighting in the air, and flaming swords hanging over their temple. They were visited with a plague so dreadful that more than one hundred and fifty thousand persons were carried out of the city and buried, at the public charge, and six hundred and fifty thousand were cast over the walls, and out of the gates.

5. "A famine ensued; and so horrible was thu

want, that a bushel of corn sold for six hundred crowns. The populace were reduced to the necessity of taking old excrement of horses, mules, and oxen, to satisfy their hunger; and a lady of quality even boiled her own child and ate it a crime so execrable, that Titus vowed to the eternal gods (he was a heathen and an idolater} that he would bury its infamy in the ruins of the city. He took it soon after by storm: the plough was drawn over it; and, with the exception of the west walls and three towers, not one stone remained above another. Ninety thousand persons were made captives, and one million one hundred thousand perished during the siege. Those made captives, being sold to several nations, were dispersed over a great portion of the ancient world; and from hem are descended the present race of Jews, scattered singly, and in detached portions, in every province of Europe, and in most districts of Africa and Asia."-Ruins of Ancient Cities, vol. i, p. 300.

6. Titus had given orders, after the successive walls were carried, and the city nearly subdued, to save the temple, where six thousand of the Jews had taken shelter. But a brand, in the heat of the conflict, was thrown into it by a soldier, and this costly and magnificent pile, amid the awful outcries of the Jews, was con sumed, with the helpless multitudes within its courts, in the raging flames. The city was afterward partly rebuilt by the Romans.

7. In A. D. 130, a Jew, surnamed Barcochab,

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