2. Interview of Domitian and the Relatives of the Lord.--There were yet living of the family of our Lord the grandchildren of Judas, called the brother of our Lord according to the flesh. These were reported as being of the family of David, and were brought to Domitian by the evocaties. For this emperor was as much alarmed at the appearance of Christ as Herod. He put the question whether they were of David's race and they confessed that they were. He then asked them what property they had, or how much money they owned. And both of them answered, that they had between them only nine thousand denarii, and this they had not in silver, but in the value of a piece of land, containing only thirty-nine acres; from which they raised their taxes and supported themselves by their own labor. Then they also began to show their hands, exhibiting the hardness of their bodies, and the callosity formed by incessant labor on their hands, as evidence of their own labor. When asked also, respecting Christ and his kingdom, what was its nature, and when and where it was to appear, they replied that it was not a temporal nor an earthly kingdom, but celestial and angelic; that it would appear at the end of the world, {112} when coming in glory he would judge the quick and the dead, and give to every one according to his works. Upon which Domitian despising them, made no reply; but treating them with contempt, as simpletons, commanded them to be dismissed, and by a decree ordered the persecution to cease.--Hegesippus, quoted by Eusebius. 3. Character of Nero.--Nero was the incarnation of depravity--the very name by which men are accustomed to express the fury of unrestrained malignity. Bad as he was, he was not worse than Rome. She had but her due. Nay, when he died the rabble and the slaves crowned his statue with garlands and scattered flowers over his grave. And why not? Nero never injured the rabble, never oppressed the slave. He murdered his mother, his brother, his wife, and was the tyrant of the wealthy, the terror of the successful. He rendered poverty sweet, for poverty alone was secure; he rendered slavery tolerable, for slaves alone or slavish men were promoted to power. The reign of Nero was the golden reign of the populace, and the holiday of the bondman.--Bancroft. REVIEW. 1. Of what did Messiah warn his followers? 2. What reason may be assigned for the hatred of the world towards the people of God? 3. What special reason can you assign for the persecution of the Christians by the Jews? 4. What can you say of the bitterness and extent of the first great persecution? 5. What circumstance rendered the Jewish power to injure the Christians unequal to the malice? 6. Describe the great conflict between the Jews and the Romans. 7. By what means did the Christians living at Jerusalem escape the calamities of those times? 8. What makes it difficult to understand why the Romans persecuted the Christians?