. Four princes;. —one, the Arch of Titus; the other,the Arch of Constantine. The Arch of Titus commemorates his destruc-tion of Jerusalem, in the year 70, as Jesus hadforetold. It means that the same soldiers thathad crucified the prophet of the Jews afterwardsunwittingly fulfilled His prophecies, and therebyverified His claims. It means that the power ofthe Jews had perished, and that Rome, by de-stroying the early anchorage of the little church,thenceforward linked its history with her own. Between this Arch of Titus and the otherintervene two centuries of martyr blood shed byRoman hands aga
. Four princes;. —one, the Arch of Titus; the other,the Arch of Constantine. The Arch of Titus commemorates his destruc-tion of Jerusalem, in the year 70, as Jesus hadforetold. It means that the same soldiers thathad crucified the prophet of the Jews afterwardsunwittingly fulfilled His prophecies, and therebyverified His claims. It means that the power ofthe Jews had perished, and that Rome, by de-stroying the early anchorage of the little church,thenceforward linked its history with her own. Between this Arch of Titus and the otherintervene two centuries of martyr blood shed byRoman hands against the followers of second arch is the Arch of Constantine, builtby him to* commemorate the Christian victoryover Rome. He was a Roman emperor, but heworshipped the despised Judean King. Thismonument testifies with silent eloquence that theJew has conquered the Roman, the Roman em-pire is become a Christian empire, and the seedof Christs kingdom was indeed and in truththe blood of Christs saints. 74. CONSTANTINE 2. THE WORM OF WORLDLINESSThe Philosophy of Persecution.—Is it possiblefor us to understand, in some degree, this mys-terious alchemy of blood ? What is the explana-tion of the fact that the Christian church hasalways thrived on persecutions, whereas it hasoften lost its vigor and purity in times of pros-perity and peace ? (a) Dispersion.—It is doubtless true that onevery simple reason for the reactionary benefits ofpersecutions consists in the fact that persecutionssecure dispersion, and the dispersion of Chris-tians means the dissemination of the gospel. Inthe book of the Acts we read of a great persecu-tion against the church which was at Jerusalem,so that the believers were all scattered then, in almost the succeeding verse, it iswritten, Therefore they that were scatteredabroad went everywhere preaching the it appears that the early persecutions weredirectly instrumental in the further diffusion ofthe gospel. Those that were
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