pretending to be the Messiah, led a revolt, and was followed by a large company. They retook Jerusalem; but this revolt was very soon crushed by Adrian, the Roman emperor, and in this war about sixty thousand more of this unfortunate and deluded nation perished. Now was terribly fulfilled that clear and express prophecy record ed against them, in that very law which they heard daily read in their synagogues. Deut. xxviii, 47-57. God had indeed "brought a nation from afar," that "moved swift as the eagle flieth." (The Roman standard was a golden eagle.) "It was a nation whose tongue they did not understand-of fierce countenance -regarding not the person of old or young.' By this nation "were they besieged in all their gates, until their high and fenced walls came down." Then did they "eat the fruit of their own body, the flesh of their own sons and their daughters, in the straitness of the siege wherewith their enemies distressed them." And then were they made to "serve their enemies in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things; and wore a yoke of iron upon their necks until they were destroyed."

8. On the ruins of Jerusalem Adrian built a new city, which he named Ælia. On the site of the temple he erected a shrine to Jupiter No Jew was allowed to enter the city, on pain of death. Soon after this, the Christians, who had escaped to the little city of Pella beyond the Jordan, returned to Jerusalem, and remained

unmolested for a long period. A Christian church and bishopric flourished here for centuries.

9. When Constantine, the emperor of Rome, embraced the Christian faith, this city immediately rose to great repute, and multitudes from every nation began to flock hither to behold the sacred scenes of their Saviour's life and death Helena, the mother of the emperor, set an illustrious example, by journeying thither, at the age of fourscore, and causing elegant churches to be erected over the supposed sites of the nativity and ascension of Christ.

10. In A. D. 362, the emperor Julian, an infidel, rejecting Christianity and practicing idolatry, in his hatred to the true religion encouraged the Jews to return and rebuild their city. The attempt was made; but a terrible earthquake, and balls of fire issuing out of the earth, killed the workmen, and destroyed the materials.

11. For many centuries Jerusalem was the resort of pilgrims without number, traveling hither to spend the remnant of their lives in pious meditation, in order, as they falsely believed, to expiate their past sins; or to kneel on consecrated ground, and return with a supposed relic of the holy cross, or sepulchre.

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12. At length, in A. D. 614, Chosroes, king of Persia, after having subjugated Syria, invested and took Jerusalem by storm- destroyed the churches, slew thousands of her clergy, monks, consecrated virgins, and other inhabitants." It was recovered again in 627, and the

temples rebuilt only to fall once more into the hands of the Mohammedans. The calif Omar, having taken possession, built a mosque, on the site of the Jewish temple. Different and desolating Mohammedan dynasties succeeded each other, until A. D. 1099, at which era it was in the hands of the Turkomans, or Turks—a race of wild barbarians, who had overrun Syria, and eventually overthrew Constantinople and the eastern Roman empire.

13. These uncivilized warriors immediately commenced a system of cruel exactions and persecutions toward the multitudes of pilgrims that still flocked to the holy city; (more especially at this time, as an idea was now prevalent that the "end of all things" was at hand.) The sufferings of their brethren in the East soon aroused the indignation of the western Christians. At this time appeared in Europe that wonderful enthusiast, Peter the Hermit. He had visited Jerusalem; seen the sufferings and indignity heaped upon the followers of Christ; and, burning with zeal for the cross, he hurried back to arouse Christendom for their deliverance. Barefooted, he passed from town to town, from province to province, from country to country, spreading the cry of "vengeance or the Turks and deliverance to Jerusalem."

15. The cry was not heard in vain. Europe almost simultaneously sprung to arms, in answer to the summons. The wild enthusiasm spread through all ranks and ages-old and young, nobles and serfs, kings and subjects,

and even the women and children, filled with overpowering zeal, and shouting the magic warcry-God wills it!-gathered around the banners of the cross.

16. The first, irregular, undisciplined troop, led on by Peter himself, were nearly all de. stroyed before reaching Asia. But, eventually one of the largest and best-disciplined armies that ever took the field-the chivalry of Europe -under the bravest leader of the day, Godfrey of Bouilon, commenced their march upon this holy crusade. After suffering indescribably, from contentions, famine; the plague, and the sword, and having taken most of the important cities of Palestine, they stood under the walls of Jerusalem. The effect produced upon their minds by the site of this city was indescribable. "The name was echoed by a thousand tongues, Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Some shouted to the sky; some knelt and prayed; some wept in silence; and some cast themselves down and kissed the blessed earth!"

17. After a long and bloody siege the city was taken, and the banner of the cross waved once more over her walls. The Christians retained possession of Jerusalem eighty-eight years. It was then wrested from them by Saladin, sultan of the East. Twice was recovered, at an expense of oceans of Christian blood, and them again reclaimed by the Moslem. In A. D. 1244 it became a part of the Ottoman or Turkish empire, and thus remained until 1832, when, with the rest of Syria, it formed a

portion of the dominion of the revolting pasha of Egypt, Mohammed Ali. In 1840 it was again recovered by the Turkish sultan, with the assistance of England; and now remains almost without a master. And thus has Jeru. salem literally been, according to the prophecy, "trodden down of the Gentiles."

CHAPTER XIV.

THE SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS SINCE THE DEATH OF CHRIST.

1. In the judgment-hall of Pilate the blinded and insane multitude cried out, while the Roman governor hesitated to condemn an innocent man: "His blood be on us, and on our children.” Matt. xxvii, 25. How awfully has this devoted race experienced the fulfillment of this terrible imprecation called down upon their own heads!

2. In all nations, whither they have been scattered, they have suffered the most cruel persecutions. Thousands were butchered in Germany by the half-frantic crusaders, before they started for the Holy Land; thinking that they could not do a greater service for the cross, than to destroy those whom they esteemed its most bitter enemies.

3. When the awful plague swept like a destroying angel over Europe, the Jews were accused of poisoning the wells, and the whole country flowed with the blood of this