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was naked and manifest that should come to pass. In reading the awful denunciations contained in the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, from the fifteenth verse to the end, we are constrained to feel that it never was or could be a contingency hypothetically set forth it is a terrible reality present to the mind of inspiration, not as what perhaps might, but as what assuredly would come to pass; increasing in the weight of its inflictions proportionably with the foreseen aggravations of Israel's progressive sins. A blessing would first be enjoyed, while the people walked with God, submitting to His divine ordinances and continuing in the way of His commandments. Then would come a declension, a determined falling away, that must gradually lead them into the settled habit of walking contrary to God, until the whole world should resound with the exceeding terribleness of his vengeance upon the holy people; their punishment being exactly proportioned to the privileges enjoyed and abused by them, as says the Lord by Amos, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities."

After this, we find in the thirtieth chapter a

CAUSE OF THE INVASION.

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prophetic description of their final repentance and return to God, followed again by the multiplication of blessings so rich, so varied, so far beyond the stretch of man's narrow mind to embrace in their fulness, that some who never think of explaining away the preceding threats, are tempted to dishonour God by calling in question the literal applicability of those rich promises to the race concerning whom they were spoken, and to surmise that they treat figuratively of things altogether apart from earth; saying, as did Ezekiel's unbelieving hearers, "Doth he not speak parables?"

Of events that occurred in preceding years, we do not intend to say much our starting point isthe final invasion of Judæa by the Roman army under Vespasian and his son Titus. The immediate cause of their expedition was the slaughter of the troops that garrisoned Jerusalem: an act into which the Jews were goaded by the really unprovoked wrongs and cruelties inflicted on them by the savage Roman procurator, Gessius Florus. This man, whose character stands out in bold relief on the page of history, as a dire specimen of what Satan can effect in assimilating the human mind to his own diabolical model, had pursued an

undeviating course of treachery, cruelty, and murder, against the people committed to his charge. For a long time they acted on a system as peaceably defensive as could be devised; and, to the number of three millions, humbly petitioned the president of Syria to protect them from his cruelties, but in vain. The first outbreak occurred in Cæsarea, the government of which was suddenly transferred to alien inhabitants, who were raised above the Jews; and the latter soon found their way of access to the synagogue wantonly and maliciously obstructed by the building of a Greek idolater, against whom they respectfully appealed to Florus, and tendered a handsome gift which was accepted as the price of his official interference. When he, apparently by design, left the place without taking any means to stay the interruption, and the Greeks, emboldened by his evident connivance, at once profaned the sabbath and polluted the synagogue, by killing birds at the door in sacrifice to their demons, the Jews, after a skirmish with the multitudes who strove to force them into submission to this abomination, removed their holy books from the place, and renewed their appeal to the Roman tyrant. He, instead of redressing the wrong, cast the petitioners into

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prison; and in the hope of exciting a rebellious movement among their brethren in Jerusalem, sent a demand for money from the treasury of the Temple, for the service, as he said, of the emperor Nero. This produced the exasperation on which he had calculated; in a tumultuous meeting of the Jews, some well-merited epithets were bestowed on Florus, who immediately, on hearing of it, marched upon Jerusalem, and returned the loyal and respectful greeting of its inhabitants, whose temporary irritation had passed away, by giving over a considerable part of the city to be sacked by the Roman soldiers. Notwithstanding this barbarous outrage, the inhabitants still declared themselves ready to submit to his authority, as the emperor's representative; but the infuriated tyrant caused between three and four thousand of the Jews to be scourged and crucified, including not only many of the noblest and best among them, but also several who held the rank of Roman citizens.

Immediately after this wanton massacre, on the very next day, while the chief priests and leading men, with dust on their heads and sackcloth on their limbs, were quelling by their entreaties the agitation of the survivors, the wretched procurator

laid another crafty snare for them. He had sent for two cohorts from Cæsarea, which was certainly the most irritating locality so far as the feelings of the Jews were concerned, ordering them to advance on Jerusalem; and then commanded the people to go out and meet them with a joyous shout of welcome. It required the utmost stretch of the influence possessed by their priests and nobles to bring them to this cruel test; and while they were persuading the Jews to obey, Florus despatched an order to the cohorts to respond to their greeting with insult; then, on the least appearance of resentment or dissatisfaction on the Jews' part, to put them to the sword. This, of course, was done; and the next act of their bloodthirsty oppressor brought matters to a crisis. Strengthened by the accession of these troops, he attempted to take possession with them of the Temple, and the city at once rose in arms. The Romans were met, fought with, and driven back to their strong-hold, Antonia; the covered way from which to the Temple was immediately pulled down by the Jews, who stood, to a man, ready to perish in defence of the holy house.

At this alarming juncture, Florus appealed to the Roman chief, Cestius Gallus, at Cæsarea; and