Page images
PDF
EPUB

set his heart to deliver Daniel: but he could not. So Daniel was cast into the den of lions.

55. The Captivity,
6th Part.

And the king said unto Daniel, "Thy God, whom thou servest alway, he will deliver thee,"

And very early in the morning the king went to the lions' den, and cried, "O Daniel servant of the living God, is the God, whom thou servest able to deliver thee from the lions?"

Then said Daniel, “ O king my God hath sent his angle, and hath shut the lions mouths, that they have not hurt me."

So Daniel was taken up out

of the den; and no manner of hurt was found upon him. because he believed in God,

56. The Return from
Captivity.

And at the end of seventy years, King Cyrus sent the Jews back from their captivity; and they rebuilt the temple, and the walls of Jerusalem, four hundred and ninety years before the birth of our Saviour.

Three hundred years after this, the Jews were invaded by King Antiochus; who plundered the temple, profaned the sanctuary, and built idol altars in all the cities of Judah: commanding that all those, who would not burn incense thereon, should be put to death.

But the Jews united under Judas Maccabeus, and gained the victory over king Antiochus; and purified the temple, and restored the altar of the Lord.

57. The final Destruction of
Jerusalem.

During the reign of Herod, king of Judea, it pleased the Lord to send his only Son JESUS CHRIST, to redeem from sin and misery all who sincerely believe in him.

He was born of a Virgin, in the city of Bethlehem, and of the lineage of David, as had been foretold by the prophets. Yet the rulers of the Jews did not believe in him, as CHRIST; but put him to a shameful and cruel death. This had been foretold by the prophets; and also by

OUR BLESSED LORD himself. OUR LORD also foretold, that before that generation should pass away, the city and temple of Jerusalem should be utterly destroyed: and that the Jews should be dispersed through all the nations of the world.

Accordingly, thirty-seven years after the crucifiction of our SAVIOUR, Jerusalem was besieged and taken by the Roman Emperor Titus. The temple and all the other buildings were destroyed; above a million of Jews were slain; and the rest dispersed over all the earth, and so continue to the present day, a proverb and a by word among all nations, and a perpetual monument of the truth of our blessed Lord's prophecy.

HISTORY

OF

OUR BLESSED SAVIOUR.

CHAP 1.-Of the birth of Jesus the Christ. Luke i. ii.

THE birth of Jesus was declared before hand by an angel from heaven. "The angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of thehouse of David; and the virgin's name was Mary" And the angel said unto her "Hail,

« PreviousContinue »