J. H. Ward
The Hand of Providence
As Shown in the History of Nations and Individuals, From / the Great Apostasy to the Restoration of the Gospel
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066184223
Table of Contents
PREFACE.
Don't throw this book down carelessly. It will do you no harm. It assumes no dictation. It may benefit you if you will read it carefully.
"We have plenty of histories."
True. But most are too large to be of practical value to the sons and daughters of toil. Many are written in the interest of some party or sect, and in order to gain favor, they flatter the vanity of men.
"But they tell of wonderful deeds, and thrilling adventures."
Very true. Some of them are mostly composed of recitals of legalized slaughter, and praise of tyrants who have climbed to power over the mangled bodies of their fellow-men, and whose names will not live in one grateful memory; while the real benefactors of the race, the unfolding of new and higher truths and, above all, the over-ruling hand of God are unnoticed, or, at most, barely mentioned.
"Does God rule the world?"
Yes, verily. The greatest actors on the theatre of the world are only instruments in the hand of God, for the execution of His purposes.
"Where have you obtained the facts contained in this volume?"
From many authentic works, some of them not easily accessible to most readers.
"This will be a good book for the young, and all those who have not the opportunity to consult larger works, will it not?"
With this idea it has been written and to this end I dedicate it to my children as heirs in the kingdom of God, to the youth of Zion and to my earnest friends everywhere.
THE AUTHOR.
Salt Lake City,
March 16th, 1883.
THE HAND OF PROVIDENCE.
CHAPTER I.
THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM AND APOSTASY OF THE EARLY CHURCH.
INJUSTICE OF ROMAN GOVERNORS—NERO EMPEROR—VESPASIAN AND TITUS SENT TO JUDEA—FORTIFICATIONS OF JERUSALEM—TITUS OFFERS TERMS OF PEACE—HORRORS OF THE SIEGE—WOMEN DEVOUR THEIR OWN CHILDREN—TEMPLE BURNED—CITY DESTROYED—DISPERSION OF THE JEWS—UNIVERSAL APOSTASY—PRIESTHOOD NO MORE—IDEAS OF GOD PERVERTED—WORSHIP CORRUPTED WITH HEATHEN RITES—PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS—EMPEROR CONSTANTINE—RISE OF MONASTIC ORDER.
According to the best records that have come down to us, the last book of the New Testament (commonly called the Apocalypse of St. John) was written about sixty years after the ascension of our Savior.
At that time the gospel of Jesus Christ had been preached in all the principal cities and countries of the known world. Numerous branches of the primitive church had been planted in Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece and Italy.
In the meantime the awful doom which the Savior predicted against Jerusalem had been literally fulfilled. Shortly after the crucifixion and ascension of the Savior, Judea became the theatre of many cruelties and oppressions arising from contentions between the Jewish priests, the depredations of numerous bands of robbers, which infested the country; but more than all from the injustice and avarice of the Roman governors.
The last of these governors was Gessius Floras, whom Josephus represents as a monster in wickedness and cruelty, and whom the Jews regarded rather as a bloody executioner, sent to torture, than as a magistrate to govern them.
Jerusalem.