HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 50, 11 April 1874, Page 13

HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

By the Abbe J. E. D auras. (Translated from the French for the New Zealand Tablet.) 22. — Fixal Cruelties and Death of Hebod. The massacre of the Holy Innocents was but an episode of the cruel persecution which signalized the latter days of Herod. This prince, says Josephus, had reached hia seventieth year. Attacked by a malady which left him no hope of recovery, he grew so melancholy that he became insupportable to himself. The horror in which he was held by his subjects, and the persuasion that they awaited his death as a deli verance, redoubled his rage. A sedition broke out at this conjuncture winch furnished him with a pretext for satiating his fury (1). In contempt of the law of Moses, Herod had caused a golden eagle, the symbol of Roman dominion, to be placed on the portico of the 'lemple (2). Judas, son of Seppbori*, and Matthias, son of Margalus, two doctors of the law, whose zeal, eloquence, and deep attachment to the national institutions, had rendered their names dear to the youth of Jerusalem, gave full vent to their indignation. The resistance of the Pbarisees, who had just refused to comply with the conditions of the census imposed on them by Caesar, bad stirred up a spirit of rebellion in the hearts of the people. The fresh outrage done to the Mosaic religion, by the exhibition, in the sanctuary of Jehovah of a sculptured figure, formally prohibited by the Jewish law, served to fill up the measure of their exasparation. The golden eagle was pulled down from the portico of the Temple, amidst the applause of the multitude ; this emblem of the bondage of Israel was broken in pieces, and the remains trampled under foot. The aged Herod, on his bed of pa ; n, heard the news of this crime ;he had still life and power enough left to cause Matthias and all his accomplices to be burned alive. Seme days later, he was removed, by order of his physicians, to the bituminous springs of Caliirrboe, situated at some furlongs from Jericho. Josephus describes, in these terms, the sufferiug-s of the ( jrant : — " A slow fever, of which the burning heat seemed wholly concentrated within him, consumed him even to the marrow ot lm bones. A devouring appetite forced him incessantly to be swallowing down food, from which, however, he derived no nourishment ; purulent ulcers gnawed away his entrails, aud wrung from him piercing cries of pain ; the joints of his limbs and his feet were swollen with dropsical tumours and afflicted with continual pains. ... To this horrible anguish was added that of a fetid and insupportable odour ; all His sinews were contracted and his breathing became short and convulsive. The physicians who attended him were unanimous in declaring that those diseases were a punishment upon him for his unheard-of cruelties" (3;. Suo'i was the living carcass which the physicians at Callirrhoe plunged into a vessel of bitumen and warm oil. No sooner was the sick man let down into it than his body seemed to fall to pieces ; his sight failed him as if he were dying. I» this btate he was carried back to his bed. lleau while, the news of his death began to be noised abroad. At this false report, the Jews set no bounds to their joy. Herod, hearing it, threw off his lethargy ; he got together the most illustrious men of the whole Jewish nation, into a pluce called the Hippodrome, and there shut them in. Ho then ' called for his sister Salome, and said to her : " I know well that the? j Jews will keep a festival upon my death ; however, it is in my power to be mourned for on other accounts ; do you conmand my archers to • slay ihesfl men that are iri custody immediately upon my death, and then all Judea wi'l weep at it whether they will or no." lie then took an apple to allay his burning thirst, and asked for a knife to cut it ; this desire being gratified, he looked about to see that there was nobody to hinder him, and lilted up 1113 right hand as if he would stab himself ; but Achiabus, his first cousin, came running to luru, and held I his hand, and prevented him from committing suicide. The report of j this event caused a great clamour in the palace. The news spread 1 quickly through the city, thai; the King hud expired As soon as ! Antipater heard it, he g;ive way to an unnatural joy, and besought his j keepers, for a sum of money, to let him go. They raa and told the King of his design; hereupon, Herod, more infuriated atthojoyof Antipater, than even at the approach of death, sent some of his guards ! to maseacre him in prison, and five days after lie expired himself, j carrying with him to the grave the malediction of the Jews, and the I sain of innocent bluod, shed in torrents during a reign of thirty-seven J years (4).