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were injured and scared by the fire, so that they dared not venture to approach the place any more. The terrible element in this manner continually driving them away, the undertaking was at last given up entirely.

How plainly is the providence of God seen in this, that this undertaking should succeed no better than the previous ones. A miracle would be performed sooner than that the prophecy should fail, and this miracle is confirmed even by reliable heathen authors.

Bishop Newton remarks that the truthfulness of this event is confirmed both by Julian himself and by Jewish, Greek, and Latin historians. Among these is Socrates, a friend of the Novatians. He wrote his history in less than fifty years after this event, while people were still alive who had been eye-witnesses.

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The Reign of The Mohammedans Over Jerusalem. Julian was the last of the heathen emperors. After that Jerusalem was under the reign of the Christian emperors, until the city fell into the hands of the Saracens. They rebuilt it, and it was inhabited by professed Christians. The Jews were not permitted to enter it.

Jerusalem again fell under foreign domination in the year 614, when it was stormed by the Persian king Chosroes II, when the inhabitants were treated in the most cruel manner.

Ninety thousand were sold and sacrificed to the cruelty and revengefulness of the Jews. But in 628 the Roman emperor Heraclius drove out the Persians and delivered Jerusalem out of their hands. He forbade the Jews, under severe punishment, to come within three miles of the city.

After the spreading of the Mohammedan religion, Jerusalem fell into the hands of Caliph Omar, A. D. 637. He

35 Newton's "Dissertations," book ii, part iii; Gibbon's "History of Rome," chap. xxiii; Universal Knowledge, art. Jerusalem.

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treated the city kindly and built a mosque in which he was afterward killed when he offered his morning prayer. It remained in the hands of the caliphs until 1077, when it passed under Turkman's domination. The Christians paid tribute, and for this reason were thus tolerated. During this long period the practice of pilgrimages to Jerusalem was never entirely broken up.

When it was reported in the west that the pilgrims were cruelly treated by the Turks, the Christians in Europe were aroused, and the Crusades were begun. On July 15, 1099, Jerusalem was taken by assault, and was declared the capital of a Christian kingdom.

This new sovereignty was precautiously maintained until 1187, when it fell once more before the armies of the Great Saladin, who overturned the domination of the caliphs, and was proclaimed Sultan of Egypt. Jerusalem was captured from the Saracens by the Mamelukes in 1382, but recovered by the Sultan Selim in 1517. Thus it has con

tinued to be under the supremacy of the Turks. Jerusalem is now the seat of a pasha who has the ordinary powers of a Turkish viceroy. 36

A Remarkable Prayer.

In this connection our Saviour said at last: "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." This shows that Jesus had a tender care He did not want them

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for the well-being of his followers. to suffer great distress in the winter. This shows also that he thought of their worship and of the rest-day of the Lord, which he himself, in connection with the Father, had blessed and sanctified in Eden.

There can be no doubt that he in this place speaks of the same Sabbath day which God on Mount Sinai commanded to be kept holy. This was the last day in the

36 Ibid, Universal Knowledge, art. Jerusalem.

37 Matt. 24: 20.

week, which has always been observed by the Jews. Our Saviour never kept any other.

The text shows plainly that the early Christians kept the last day of the week until at least forty years after the resurrection of Christ, when Jerusalem was destroyed; and we have no reason to believe that the Sabbath has been changed or abolished since that time by Christ or by his apostles.

Of this, Professor Waldenström, in his translation of the New Testament with notes, says that the Saviour said this with reference to the position which believers in general as well as the apostles held, when the Lord spoke these words, for they still considered the moral commandments with the Sabbath binding. A flight on the Sabbath would therefore have been attended with great difficulties, and perhaps it would even have brought great distress of conscience upon many of them." 38

38 Waldenström's Translations of the New Testament, note on Matt. 24: 20. Mr. W. is professor at the university of Upsala, Sweden. He is a member of the Lutheran Church, and is considered one of the most learned Greek scholars of Europe.

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