Traditions of Palestine/Alas! That Mighty City!
ALAS! THAT MIGHTY CITY!
It was the day of preparation for the Passover; and there was gladness in all the Holy City. Music sounded from afar, as companies who came up to the feast entered at sun-rise by the several gates. A cloud of dust was raised towards Hebron, as the feet. of pilgrims trod the road to Jerusalem. As the mists drew off from the valley of Ajalon, it was seen that the tents which had been pitched there at even-tide were struck, that they who had reposed therein might hasten to the feast. The dwellers in Jerusalem came forth upon the housetops to greet their guests, and to boast of the multitude of their people: and, save that bands of soldiers went to and fro, there was no sign that the Romans had of late surrounded the city, and might approach to besiege it again.
As the Galileans drew nigh from the northward, a company came forth from the gate of Ephraim, as if to meet them; but when the musicians who led the march of the strangers poured a louder strain of greeting, they who issued from the gate saluted them gravely and passed on.
The Galileans ceased their music and stood still, marvelling that men should on this day go out as way-farers, for such they seemed. The men were shod us for a journey, and their garments were girded around them. The women and their children rode on asses, and behind were laden beasts. When some inquired wherefore they left the city before the feast was begun, they pointed towards the north-west. Somewhat was seen on the horizon, glittering in the morning sun. The men of the city were in doubt what it might be; but the Christians knew that it was the helmets and spears of the Roman army: and therefore they departed.
When they were a few furlongs from the gate, they turned to look once more on Zion. She was fair as a bride waiting for the marriage. The temple was as a mountain of snow in the sunshine, and the golden spikes which covered the roof glittered like stars; and the sky above was of a deeper blue than in all the heaven besides. There were tents on the roofs of all the houses, and the walls and towers were thronged with people.
The Christians gazed till their eyes were dim with tears; and then the breeze brought to them a voice as from the tombs, which cried, “Woe unto Jerusalem and the holy house! Woe unto the bridegrooms and the brides! Woe unto the whole people!”
“Thus was there feasting in Sodom, when the decree of Jehovah had gone forth against her,” said one among the Christians. Yet his spirit and the spirit of his companions yearned towards the abode of their fathers. One who pressed her fatherless babe to her bosom, sighed,
“Alas! that we should leave the tombs in the valley of Jehosaphat! Where shall be thy sepulchre, my child?”
A youth, who had laid down his arms when he became a Christian, looked towards the towers of defence, and thence to the array of spears, which was now distinctly seen on the horizon, and his face was flushed as he cried,
“If our faith did not forbid to shed the blood of these oppressors, mine arm should be strong to defend my people.”
“It would be in vain, my son,” replied an elder; “the glory of our nation departeth. A better victory is for thee.”
The smoke of the offering now curled above the courts of the temple. An aged priest, who had joined himself to the Christians and left the city sorrowing, could not now restrain himself. He turned to his children to bid them farewell, purposing to abide in the temple till it should be overthrown. He would suffer none to return with him, because the Lord Jesus had given them warning to flee from the wrath to come; but for himself he said,
“My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of Jehovah, where I have served all the days of my manhood. Though the incense should ascend no more, though the sparrow should build in the holy place, and the swallow feed her young on the altar, I will appear in Zion before God. Go ye into the mountains with your wives and your little ones; for ye are not priests; but for me,—I have chosen my lot.”
So saying, he returned upon his steps gladly. As the wayfarers proceeded, they met many who would have persuaded them to return, saying, that in the holy city alone was there a sure refuge. But the Christians answered in the words of the Holy One, and passed on.
If they had ever doubted those words, they would now have found them true. There were rumours in all the land of new prophets who rose up to delude the people; there were divisions also among the leaders, and a slaughter of Hebrews by the hands of Hebrews. Messengers, whom the Christians sent forth from their abode in the mountains, brought tidings of greater woe day by day. They told how the Romans had digged a trench, and compassed the walls of the city, so that none could pass to and fro to bear food.
There was also a great drought, and a cry for water arose out of the streets; for the days were past when the young men and maidens could go forth to the water-springs at sunrise. Neither were those streams now pure; for the bodies of the dead were cast abroad from the walls, and lay beneath the waters of Siloah and Kedron, The mighty men of the Hebrews were trodden under foot, and the cry of anguish went up from all the dwellings of Zion. The palaces of Jerusalem were still seen from afar, like unto the abodes of princes; but famine raged where the feast had been spread. The temple still savoured of incense; but slaughter had polluted the sacrifices. The trumpets still sounded to battle from the towers; but with them was again mingled the voice of evil omen which cried, “Woe, woe, unto the city!”
When the Christians heard these things, they prayed that the days of trouble should be shortened; but while they sorrowed for their nation, they gave thanks that the law of salvation had been promised to all people. The glory of the Hebrews was passing away, as a wandering fire that vanishes in darkness; but the bright and morning star had risen which should set no more.—Though the Jews should pass under the yoke and be chained to the car of their conqueror, the new and better law of Jehovah should be established, so that every man should be a priest, and every day a sabbath. Thus they mingled joy for mankind with tears for their people.
They loved to speak one to another of the holy men who had seen Jesus and followed him through the land. When the worship was ended, or when they surrounded the board, or gathered together beneath the shadow of the hills, the old men told what they had seen and heard, and the children sat at their feet to listen. One remembered how his mother had held him up that he might see the Teacher pass by when the people spread their garments in the way, and shouted Hosannas, Another had stood before Paul of Tarsus to defend him when the multitude dragged him forth from the temple. There was also one who had gone with Simon Peter to Rome, and tended him in prison, and walked with him when he went to his death, and borne his last words to his wife, who suffered with him. This witness was never weary of telling how great was the patience and how unconquerable the courage of the martyr: how the fire of his soul shone from beneath the brow of age; and how he could even smile as the wife of his bosom bade him farewell, because her death was a testimony to the faith.
“If it be true,” said one who heard, “that Simon Peter was, in the beginning, less steadfast and less patient than his brethren, we see in him the power of the faith; for he died the prince of the apostles.”
“That thus it was with him when the Holy One appeared, I can bear witness,” said a woman who bowed beneath the burden of years. “I walked on the shore of the lake, on the morning when the Teacher called Simon to follow him. The next day, Sadoc, my brother, spoke with him on the paths of Tabor, and they were troubled in spirit because the prophet taught to forgive injuries, and not to resist evil. Sadoc smiled when he told me of this, to think how his spirit was changed. If he yet lived, he would forgive unto our conquerors even such evil as they visit on our land this day.”
“Even as John who liveth to witness it,” said another. “His tongue is feeble with age, yet sayeth he unto us, 'My children, love one another.' Soon shall his tongue be silent, if, as he believes, he shall depart when the visitation of wrath is accomplished, when the temple shall be overthrown, according to the sure words of Christ."
"The time is at hand," said one who had drawn nigh to the company unperceived. It was Adonijah, the aged priest, who had gone back from them to serve to the last the altar of Jehovah.
"The temple is surely overthrown, since thou art here, my father!" said his sons as they bent before him.
"The temple yet standeth, but the fire of the altar is extinguished, Therefore I come, because I know that the office of the priesthood is ended. I have seen the sacred vessels melted in the fire, as the ore that cometh impure out of the ground; and therefore I seek a place of prayer where none can commit sacrilege."
The company opened a way to the palmgrove where they worshiped; and thither the old man retired with his children alone.
When he came forth, he told how the Hebrews had contended among themselves, as if they hungered for slaughter rather than food, and thirsted above all for blood. He told how the people had perished of famine, even while lambs were spared for the offering; how the smoke had daily risen, while the battle was carried to the very gates of the temple; and how the Roman general had had respect unto the sanctuary, and desired that the priests should not be hindered in their office. Yet the sacrifice had ceased, for there were at length none left to minister save he alone.
When he saw the last spark of the holy fire blown out, and its ashes scattered by the winds which entered through the breaches of the walls; when he traversed the priests' apartments and found no son of Aaron there; when he looked how deadly foes grappled in the holy courts, he knew that the glory of Jehovah had departed from behind the veil, and that the place where he stood was no longer sanctified. He took his staff and crossed the threshold, casting no look behind. He sent forth in his priests' garments, in sight of the Romans; and when they saw that he was a man of peace, full of years also and wasted with hunger, they allowed him to go whither he would.
"Though I well know," he said, "that in all this tribulation the word of the Holy One is fulfilled, and though I believe that in his gospel there is an abundant recompence unto all, my spirit is heavy within me. The blood of my people is before me, and their wailings are in mine ear, and I would fain know the issue of these troubles. Go forth, my son Jonathan, and watch from the hill Teresh whether aught further hath befallen the city."
Jonathan departed, not to return till the fate of Jerusalem should be known. Each night, at the first watch, he blew a single blast on the trumpet as a signal to those who listened afar that the besieged were yet unconquered. Though they knew what should come, there was pride in that hour, in the saying of their people that God had made the Hebrews of such a temper that they did not fear death; there was pride that the lion of Judah stood thus long at bay with the hunters.
The Christians were assembled for worship as they were wont before they should go forth to hearken on the hill-side for the voice of the watchman. The air was sultry, and there was no sound in the grove but of him who read, in the words of Luke, how the Lord Jesus had mourned over Jerusalem because she had stoned the prophets who reproved her in the day of her pride, and must therefore be left desolate. The voice of the reader faltered, and while he paused, the sound of a trumpet was heard from afar. It was faint; for there was no breeze to waft the music; and the worshipers looked one upon another in doubt. Again it was heard, like the voice of a dream; but when the third blast arose louder and clearer, the company bowed before Jehovah, knowing that the first covenant was now fulfilled.
It was night before they arrived where Jonathan waited for them on the heights of Teresh. The holy city was on the extreme verge of the plain, like a cloud of the sky, or a far island of the sea. Only when the sun shone on the temple at noonday, or the watch-fires were kindled at night, could it be discerned. But now a flame, mightier than all the watchfires of the land, spread itself on the horizon, and sent up a light into the firmament which dimmed the stars.
The moon still rode high in the heaven when this pillar of fire was become a cloud. The silver beam shone on the grey hairs of Adonijah while his head was yet uncovered; and on the tears of the women ere they drew their veils around them, and sat down to mourn that the glory of Israel was extinguished.
As Hebrews they thus mourned; but already other thoughts were in their hearts, for they were also Christians. Though the heaven and the earth should pass away, they looked for new heavens and a new earth; for beauty out of ashes, even as they had seen life arise out of the dust. One among them said,
“When our city sat as a throned queen, a cry of woe was uplifted against her, amidst her song of rejoicing; but now when she hath been desolate for a while, music shall come unto her on the four winds. In the ends of the earth and the islands of the deep shall she be honoured, because the Holy One hath been within her gates.”
“Yet,” said Adonijah, “she shall have a sanctuary no longer. Moriah shall be a ploughed field, and wild grapes shall be gathered where our golden vine hung forth its clusters. The tabernacle of God is now with every nation. Worship no more towards Jerusalem; for in the heart of every man is henceforth the Holy of Holies.”
G. SMALLFIELD, PRINTER, HACKNEY.