for the amusement of
Roman spectators.

In the course of the siege, a wall was constructed about the entire
city, thus fulfilling the Lord's prediction (Luke 19:43), "thine enemies
shall cast a trench about thee," in which, by the admittedly better
translation, "bank" or "palisade" should appear instead of "trench". In
September A.D. 70 the city fell into the hands of the Romans; and its
destruction was afterward made so thorough that its site was plowed up.
Jerusalem was "trodden down of the Gentiles", and ever since has been
under Gentile dominion, and so shall continue to be "until the times of
the Gentiles be fulfilled." (Luke 21:24.)

2. In the Deserts and in Secret Chambers.--The 24th chapter of Matthew,
and its parallel scriptures in Mark 13 and Luke 21, may be the more
easily understood if we bear in mind that the Lord therein speaks of two
distinct events, each a consummation of long ages of preparation, and
the first a prototype of the second. Many of the specific predictions
are applicable both to the time preceding or at the destruction of
Jerusalem, and to developments of succeeding time down to the second
coming of Christ. The passage in Matt. 24:26 may be given this two-fold
application. Josephus tells of men leading others away into the desert,
saying under pretended inspiration that there should they find God; and
the same historian mentions a false prophet who led many into the secret
chambers of the temple during the Roman assault, promising them that
there would the Lord give them deliverance. Men, women, and children
followed this fanatical leader, and were caught in the holocaust of
destruction, so that 6,000 of them perished in the flames (Josephus,
Wars vi, ch. 5). Concerning an application of the Lord's precepts to
later times and conditions, the author has elsewhere written (_The Great
Apostasy_, 7:22-25): One of the heresies of early origin and rapid
growth in the Church was the doctrine of antagonism between body and
spirit, whereby the former was regarded as an incubus and a curse. From
what has been said this will be recognized as one of the perversions
derived from the alliance of Gnosticism with Christianity. A result of
this grafting in of heathen doctrines was an abundant growth of hermit
practises, by which men sought to weaken, torture, and subdue their
bodies, that their spirits or "souls" might gain greater freedom. Many
who adopted this unnatural view of human existence retired t