The Little Gleaner.

EDITOR'S ADDRESS TO HIS DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS.

friends,

A HAPPY New Year to you, dear young says your old Gleaning Friend, as he lays down his bundle before you, and asks you to untie it, and take out the plump ears he has again picked up for your use, and thanks all who have kindly invited new friends to join our company, and again entreats those who have not done so to do it at once. He is as willing as ever, if not more willing than ever, to go on doing the gathering work, and wants nothing for his pains but the blessing of God to rest upon his labours, and sufficient means to widen his efforts to spread the truth.

Already he has lying loose about him quantities of valuable ears of moral and spiritual corn, that only wait to be bound in bundles ready to be put into the hands of his thousands of dear young friends. Dear young friends, your lot is cast in an eventful period. Things do not progress at waggon or coach rate, but rush onward at railway and electric speed. You may live to see the times of the great tribulation such as never was since there was a nation-no, nor ever shall be. You may live to see the great apostasy of the latter times, the revelation of the man of sin (2 Thess. ii. 3), and all that dwell upon the earth worshipping the beast and his image, excepting those whose names are written in the Book of Life (Rev. xiii. 8), for these are amongst the true sayings of God, all of

which will be fulfilled in their season. Yea, more, you may live to see the drawing nigh of the days when Jerusalem shall be again safely inhabited, and until such a scene as the one in our frontispiece is actually presented in the principal streets of Jerusalem restored (Zech. viii. 4). I want you to be accustomed to consider every word of God as certain of fulfilment as the wisdom, power, truth, and justice of God can make it. God's solemn threats to unbelievers must all be accomplished, as well as His promises to believers. Dear young friends, think, if you are still an unbeliever, the solemn, "shall be damned," of God who cannot lie, hangs over your head. But if you are truly a seeker of the Lord, the "shall find

of

a promise-making and promise-keeping God is yours; and if you are a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, the "shall be saved" is yours of Him whose promise is yea and amen, and never was forfeited yet.

Dear children, there are certain things I particularly wish you to be kept from in this life, such as drunkenness, swearing, lying, stealing, loose company, theatres, gaming, horse-racings, &c.; these are the high road to misery, here and hereafter. But in the life to come there is that concentration of all miseries in one, "the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone." I long for you to escape that, and to be the means of directing your youthful feet to the only way from hell to heaven-that blessed Saviour who says, "I am the Way," and who promises to cast out none who come to Him. Be assured of this, if you were to die in the course of 1870-and who can be sure you will not ?-you would be sent to endless woe for your sins, if you were to die without having truly come to the Lord Jesus. Jesus must be

your Way, or heaven will never be your end. Oh, beware of substituting anything in religion for believing acquaintanceship with Jesus. Any other refuge than Jesus is a refuge of lies.

Do not listen to, nor witness the silly christened paganistic ceremonies of Ritualism, nor to the reasonings and flattering eloquence of Rationalism. Read much your Bibles, and take all you read there to be the exact truth of God. Hear the proclaimed truth, and, oh, may the word of God reach your heart, not in word only but in power. Oh, how soon the bright unfading bliss of Paradise, with all its endless flow of glorious praise, or the dark fiery gulf of woe, with its never-ceasing concert of groans, must be the portion of every reader! Think of these things, dear young friends, and may this be to you a year in which Jesus shall dwell in your hearts by faith, and then will it be to you indeed 66 A HAPPY NEW YEAR."

HISTORY OF THE JEWS.

FROM NEHEMIAH TO THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.

CHAPTER XXII.

WHILE the Romans were more occupied with the suppression of the revolution in Rome, the Jews had a fair opportunity of defending themselves; instead of which they broke out into factions; one party arming themselves against another, and committing such cruelties as surpassed all the miseries inflicted upon them by the Romans.

One party called Zealots, from their boasted zeal for the law of God, and the religious customs of their ancestors, being headed by John, who had fled from Giscala, withdrew to the temple, which

they used as a fortress. The people, however, rose against them, and, after a severe contest drove them into the inner temple, whence they privately sent to the Idumeans for assistance, who immediately advanced to the number of twenty thousand men; but on their arrival they found the gates shut against them by the citizens. On the night following, there happened a most tremendous storm of thunder and lightning, accompanied with heavy rain and a violent earthquake. The Zealots, who were besieged in the inner temple, took advantage of the terror and confusion that now prevailed, to force a passage through, and let the Idumeans into the city, upon which a dreadful massacre ensued. Twelve thousand of the higher rank, eight thousand citizens, and vast numbers of the lower sort, fell victims on this occasion. The Idumeans, at length, began to be ashamed of the inhuman practices of the Zealots, and repented that they had joined them; they accordingly returned to their own country, having first set at liberty two thousand prisoners. The Zealots now renewed their rapine and slaughter with greater barbarity than ever; and having no enemy capable of opposing them, they turned their murderous weapons against each other, whilst the poor remains of the people were miserably plundered by them all.

About this time a new faction arose, headed by one Simon, a man of bold and daring spirit, who had collected a vast multitude of people together, with the prospect of accumulating wealth by making depredations on the public. Having plundered and burnt many towns and villages, and spread universal consternation, he advanced wards Jerusalem and encamped with all his ces before that city.

John of Giscala, having exercised his assumed authority in a very tyrannical manner, many of his own party through envy of his power, or detestation of his cruelties, revolted from him, killed a great number of his men, plundered his palace, and forced him to retire into the inner temple. The people, in the mean-time, fearing the effects of his cruel disposition, should he regain his power, called a council, in which they came to the fatal resolution of letting Simon into the city, to oppose John and his Zealots. Simon was accordingly admitted, but soon made them repent of their rashness, as the cruelties exercised by him exceeded all they had suffered from John; so that their calamities were rather increased than diminished, being exposed alternately to the rage of both parties.

To augment their miseries yet more, a third faction now arose, headed by one Eleazer, who, having prevailed upon numbers to join him, seized on the inner part of the temple. Thus was John obliged daily to fight against Eleazer within and Simon without, so that the temple and altar were profaned and polluted with blood, and such quantities of provision destroyed, as might have served the city for several years, through want of which it afterwards suffered so severely.

Jerusalem was involved in all these calamities, when Titus with a powerful army approached to invest it, particulars of which we must reserve to

our next.

He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy" (Prov. xxix. 1).