When the report of this spread through the city, the consternation was universal and inexpressible. The people now, for the first time, began to think themselves forsaken of God. In the mind of Titus the recital awakened both horror and indignation, and he resolved to push the siege with still greater vigor, aiming particularly to obtain possession of the temple. The preservation of this noble edifice was strongly desired by him; but one of the Roman soldiers being exasperated by the Jews, or, as Josephus says, "pushed on by the hand of Providence," seized a blazing firebrand, and getting on his comrades' shoulders, threw it through a window, and soon the whole north side was in a flame. Titus immediately gave order to extinguish the fire; but the enraged soldiers, bent on destroying the city and all it contained, either did not hear or did not regard him. The flames continued to spread until this consecrated edifice, the glory of the nation, became one mingled heap of ruins. Then followed a terrible massacre in which thousands perished, some in the flames and others by the sword of the enemy. At length the city was abandoned to the fury of the soldiers. It is said that nearly one million five hundred thousand persons perished in the siege. The conquest of the city being achieved, Titus proceeded to demolish its noble structures, its fortifications, palaces and walls. So literally were the predictions of the Savior fulfilled respecting its destruction that not one stone was left upon another that was not thrown down. From that day the Jews have been dispersed through the world, despised and hated, persecuted and yet upheld--lost as it were among the nations, and yet distinct--they live as the monuments of the truth of God. While the apostles lived the churches planted by them continued to exist with more or less of spiritual life. But the spirit of apostasy was already at work. In some places pagan rites and ceremonies had perverted the worship of the true God and but few could be found who remained {13} pure amid the corruptions of the age or undaunted by the trials and persecutions that surrounded them on every side. So universal was this apostasy that only seven churches throughout Asia, Africa and Europe were considered worthy of being either reproved or blessed by the voice of revelation. (_See Revelations 2nd and 3rd chapters_.) The whole eastern continent of which we have authentic history was at that period under the control of Rome, and paganism was the religion of the empire. Thus the whole power of the realm was brought to bear against the infant church. Pagan priests excited the populace to frenzy, and royal decrees delivered the saints to the most terrible tortures and death.