The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 34

he made an earnest appeal to the Jewish leaders not to force him to
defile the sacred place with blood. If they would come forth and fight
in any other place, no Roman should violate the sanctity of the temple.
Josephus himself, in a most eloquent appeal, entreated them to surrender,
to save themselves, their city, and their place of worship. But his words
were answered with bitter curses. Darts were hurled at him, their last
human mediator, as he stood pleading with them. The Jews had rejected
the entreaties of the Son of God, and now expostulation and entreaty
only made them more determined to resist to the last. In vain were the
efforts of Titus to save the temple; One greater than he had declared that
not one stone was to be left upon another.
The blind obstinacy of the Jewish leaders, and the detestable crimes
perpetrated within the besieged city, excited the horror and indignation
of the Romans, and Titus at last decided to take the temple by storm. He
determined, however, that if possible it should be saved from destruction.
But his commands were disregarded. After he had retired to his tent at
night, the Jews, sallying from the temple, attacked the soldiers without.
In the struggle, a firebrand was flung by a soldier through an opening
in the porch, and immediately the cedar-lined chambers about the holy
house were in a blaze. Titus rushed to the place, followed by his generals
and legionaries, and commanded the soldiers to quench the flames. His
words were unheeded. In their fury the soldiers hurled blazing brands
into the chambers adjoining the temple, and then with their swords they
slaughtered in great numbers those who had found shelter there. Blood
flowed down the temple steps like water. Thousands upon thousands of
Jews perished. Above the sound of battle, voices were heard shouting:
“Ichabod!”—the glory is departed.
“Titus found it impossible to check the rage of the soldiery; he
entered with his officers, and surveyed the interior of the sacred edifice.
The splendor filled them with wonder; and as the flames had not yet
penetrated to the holy place,

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