Fathers, mothers,
brothers, sisters, gazing upon each other in silent expectation, saw
death gradually advancing in all its horrors. They were driven to the
most dreadful extremities, until (is Josephus informs us) "they
devoured whatever came in their way; mice, rats, serpents, lizards,
even to the spider"--and lastly mothers were driven to eat the flesh
of their own children! Here were lamentation and wo indeed! Such
tribulation as our Saviour says never was, and never will be. In
imagination the mind runs back to the period, and to the fatal spot.
It surveys the painful scene, characterized by nought but moral and
physical woes--madness and revenge, cruelty and carnage, pestilence
and famine, and all the mingled horrors of war! It surveys the
starving child clinging to the maternal bosom for help and protection,
but alas! That bosom becomes its grave. Here the ungodly and the
sinner appeared in deep despair! Unfeeling mortal, do you say that
their punishment and sufferings were not sufficiently great, without
adding that of immortal pain in the future world? Are you not
satisfied without arguing that they ought to suffer endless misery in
addition to their woes? Look with an unjaundiced eye over this scene
of distress; and as you gaze let justice (if not compassion) once more
take the throne of the heart, and then pronounce the shocking sentence
of your creed if you can.

That their sufferings were overwhelming is evident from scripture as
well as from history. In Lam. iv. The prophet Jeremiah says--"The
hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children, they were
their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people." In Lev.
Xxvi. Moses describes their sufferings as follows--"And I will bring a
sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when
ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the
pestilence among you, that shall make you few in number; and ye shall
be delivered into the hand of the enemy. And when I have broken the
staff of your bread ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and
they shall deliver you your bread again by weight; and ye shall eat
and not be satisfied. And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me
but walk contrary unto me; then I will walk contrary unto you also in
fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And
ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters
shall ye eat." This did come upon