An arch was
set up at Rome in honour of his victory, with the likeness of these
treasures sculptured on it. It is still standing, and the figures there
carved are the chief means we have of knowing what these holy ornaments
were really like. He gave the Jews, some to work in the Egyptian mines,
some to fight with wild beasts to amuse the Romans, and many more to be
sold as slaves. Other people thus dispersed had become fused into other
nations; but it was not so with the Jews. "Slay them not, lest my people
forget it, but scatter them abroad among the heathen," had been the
prophecy of the Psalmist; and thus it has remained even to the present
day. The piteous words of Moses have been literally fulfilled, and among
the nations they have found no ease, neither has the sole of their foot
found any rest; but the trembling heart, and failing eye, and sorrowful
mind, have always been theirs. They have ever been loathed and
persecuted by the nations where their lot has been cast, ever craving
for their lost home, ever hoping for the Messiah of their own fancy.
Still they keep their Sabbath on the seventh day; still they follow the
rules of clean and unclean; and on each Friday, such as still live at
Jerusalem sit with their faces to the wall, and lift up their voice in
mournful wailing for their desolation.
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