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A staffing joke to inaugurate the new Glimpses
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 s the young minister traveled through the
rugged country near England's Cheddar Gorge, the clouds burst and torrential
sheets of rain pummeled the earth. The weary traveler was able to find
shelter standing under a rocky overhang. There, protected from the buffeting
wind and rain, Augustus Toplady conceived one of the most popular hymns
ever written, "Rock of Ages, Cleft for me, Let me hide myself in
Thee."
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In
March, 1776 Toplady published the hymn as part of an article in The
Gospel Magazine, which he edited. He wrote that just as England could
never pay her national debt, so man could never by his own merits satisfy
the justice of God. In the middle of the article he burst into song, printing
for the first time the hymn "Rock of Ages", which so ably describes
Christ, the Rock of Ages, as the remedy for all our sin.
Augustus Toplady died of consumption at the age of 38. As he neared the
end Toplady proclaimed, "My heart beats every day stronger and stronger
for glory. Sickness is no affliction, pain no cause, death itself no dissolution...My
prayers are now all converted into praise."
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DISTANT DATELINE: Titus Quells Revolt, Devastates
Jerusalem City in Flames, Jewish Temple Destroyed
JERUSALEM, 70 AD. The valiant Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, triumphantly
completed the work begun by his esteemed father and decisively defeated
the revolt of the Jews in Jerusalem against our noble empire.
Jerusalem lies in ruins, its revered temple burned to the ground. Flavius
Josephus, a Jewish leader who earlier took part in the revolt, repeatedly
and unsuccessfully pled with fellow Jews to desist. He estimates the Jewish
death count at a staggering one and a half million. In addition, thousands
were captured to be enslaved.
The Jews refused repeated offers of mercy, preferring to fight against
all reasonable hopes, some expecting a divine deliverer to intervene for
them. Josephus described the almost unimaginable carnage the Jews brought
upon themselves. Titus' forces "choked the alleys with corpses and
deluged the whole city with blood, in so much that many of the fires were
extinguished by the gory stream."
One interesting sidelight, a small sect known as "Christians"
that recently emerged from within Judaism refused to join the revolt.
They follow the teachings of the condemned criminal Jesus, who was crucified
at Jerusalem some forty years ago. His followers are said to have fled
to the fortified city of Pella in central Palestine. They claim that Jesus,
a generation ago, had actually predicted the destruction of the temple.
One of the victorious centurions commented to this reporter that Jerusalem
has been a trouble spot for centuries, captured by a succession of invaders
from the Jebusites, to the Jews, to Nebuchadnezzar, to the Seleucidae.
"Finally," he exulted, "and forever, this city will be
under the control of Rome, never again to cause such havoc." |
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