PREFACE.
Table of Contents
Don't throw this book down carelessly. It will do you no harm. It assumes no dictation. It may benefit you if you will read it carefully.
"We have plenty of histories."
True. But most are too large to be of practical value to the sons and daughters of toil. Many are written in the interest of some party or sect, and in order to gain favor, they flatter the vanity of men.
"But they tell of wonderful deeds, and thrilling adventures."
Very true. Some of them are mostly composed of recitals of legalized slaughter, and praise of tyrants who have climbed to power over the mangled bodies of their fellow-men, and whose names will not live in one grateful memory; while the real benefactors of the race, the unfolding of new and higher truths and, above all, the over-ruling hand of God are unnoticed, or, at most, barely mentioned.
"Does God rule the world?"
Yes, verily. The greatest actors on the theatre of the world are only instruments in the hand of God, for the execution of His purposes.
"Where have you obtained the facts contained in this volume?"
From many authentic works, some of them not easily accessible to most readers.
"This will be a good book for the young, and all those who have not the opportunity to consult larger works, will it not?"
With this idea it has been written and to this end I dedicate it to my children as heirs in the kingdom of God, to the youth of Zion and to my earnest friends everywhere.
THE AUTHOR.
Salt Lake City,
March 16th, 1883.
CHAPTER I.
Table of Contents
THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM AND APOSTASY OF THE EARLY CHURCH.
INJUSTICE OF ROMAN GOVERNORSNERO EMPERORVESPASIAN AND TITUS SENT TO JUDEAFORTIFICATIONS OF JERUSALEMTITUS OFFERS TERMS OF PEACEHORRORS OF THE SIEGEWOMEN DEVOUR THEIR OWN CHILDRENTEMPLE BURNEDCITY DESTROYEDDISPERSION OF THE JEWSUNIVERSAL APOSTASYPRIESTHOOD NO MOREIDEAS OF GOD PERVERTEDWORSHIP CORRUPTED WITH HEATHEN RITESPERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANSEMPEROR CONSTANTINERISE OF MONASTIC ORDER.
According to the best records that have come down to us, the last book of the New Testament (commonly called the Apocalypse of St. John) was written about sixty years after the ascension of our Savior.
At that time the gospel of Jesus Christ had been preached in all the principal cities and countries of the known world. Numerous branches of the primitive church had been planted in Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece and Italy.
In the meantime the awful doom which the Savior predicted against Jerusalem had been literally fulfilled. Shortly after the crucifixion and ascension of the Savior, Judea became the theatre of many cruelties and oppressions arising from contentions between the Jewish priests, the depredations of numerous bands of robbers, which infested the country; but more than all from the injustice and avarice of the Roman governors.
The last of these governors was Gessius Floras, whom Josephus represents as a monster in wickedness and cruelty, and whom the Jews regarded rather as a bloody executioner, sent to torture, than as a magistrate to govern them.
Jerusalem.
During the government of Felix, his predecessor, a dispute having arisen between the Jews and Syrians about the city of Caesarea, their respective claims were referred to the emperor, Nero, at Rome. The decision was in favor of the Syrians, and the Jews immediately took up arms to avenge their cause.
In this state of things, Nero gave orders to Vespasian to march into Judea with a powerful army. Accordingly, Vespasian, accompanied by his son Titus, marched into Palestine at the head of 60,000 well-disciplined troops. While Vespasian was thus preparing more effectually to curb the still unbroken spirit of the Jews, intelligence arrived of the death of the emperor and his own election to the throne. Departing therefore for Rome he left the best of his troops with his son, ordering him to besiege and utterly destroy Jerusalem.
Titus lost no time in carrying into effect his father's injunction. Jerusalem was strongly fortified both by nature and art. Three walls surrounded it which were considered impregnable; besides which it had numerous towers outside of the walls, lofty, firm and strong. The circumference was nearly four miles.
Desirous of saving the city, Titus repeatedly sent offers of peace to the inhabitants; but they were indignantly rejected. At length finding all efforts at treaty ineffectual, he entered upon the siege determined not to leave it until he had razed the city to its foundation.
The internal state of the city soon became horrible. The inhabitants being divided in their counsels fought with one another, and the streets were often deluged with blood shed by the hands of kindred. In the meantime famine spread its horrors abroad, and pestilence its ravages. Thousands died daily and were carried out of the gates to be buried at the public expense; until being unable to hurry them to the grave the wretched victims were thrown into houses as fast as they fell, and there shut up.
During the prevalence of the famine, the house of a certain woman by the name of Miriam was repeatedly plundered of such provisions as she had been able to procure. So extreme did her suffering become, that she entreated those around her, to put an end to her miserable existence. At length frantic with fury and despair she snatched her infant from her bosom, killed and cooked it; and having satiated her present hunger, concealed the rest. The smell of food soon drew the voracious human tigers to her house; they threatened her with tortures; she hid her provisions from them. Being thus compelled she set before them the relics of her mangled babe. At the sight of this horrid spectacle, inhuman as they were, they stood aghast, petrified with horror, and at length rushed precipitately from the house.
When the report of this spread through the city, the consternation was universal and inexpressible. The people now, for the first time, began to think themselves forsaken of God. In the mind of Titus the recital awakened both horror and indignation, and he resolved to push the siege with still greater vigor, aiming particularly to obtain possession of the temple. The preservation of this noble edifice was strongly desired by him; but one of the Roman soldiers being exasperated by the Jews, or, as Josephus says, "pushed on by the hand of Providence," seized a blazing firebrand, and getting on his comrades' shoulders, threw it through a window, and soon the whole north side was in a flame. Titus immediately gave order to extinguish the fire; but the enraged soldiers, bent on destroying the city and all it contained, either did not hear or did not regard him. The flames continued to spread until this consecrated edifice, the glory of the nation, became one mingled heap of ruins. Then followed a terrible massacre in which thousands perished, some in the flames and others by the sword of the enemy. At length the city was abandoned to the fury of the soldiers. It is said that nearly one million five hundred thousand persons perished in the siege.
