Excerpt from Naomi: Or the Last Days of Jerusalem The interest felt for God's ancient people, the Jews, has been gradually increasing; and their condition, as a people, has been greatly improved. Many decrees have been passed in their favour in various lands; and in few civilized countries are they now subjected to either prosecution or contumely. More over, the hearts of multitudes of Christians are awakened to feelings of love and sympathy towards their elder brethren of the Jewish Church: the servants of Christ think upon the stones of Jerusalem, and it pitieth them to see her in the dust. All this, combined with many other circumstances to which the attention of the world has been called of late years, leads us to hope that as the threatened judgments of the Lord have been awfully accomplished in the dispersion of his chosen people, his promises for their restoration may ere long be found equally sure. We know that there is a tribulation - the great one - yet to be brought on the land of Israel, and on her gathered population; but that will usher in their final glory and redemption. Then the same Almighty power which has turned the fruitful field into a desolate wilderness, will cause that wilderness to blossom as the rose; and the same hand that once scattered the Jews over the face of the world, and made them a proverb and a by-word to the Gentile nations, will bring them again to their own land, and make them the joy of the whole earth, While we contemplate the present fallen condition of the children of Israel, and the desolate state in which their good land - once flowing with milk and honey - is still lying, our minds naturally revert to their former glory, and the un exampled prosperity with which they were blessed: and we ask wherefore they have thus been degraded from their high position? God's word gives the answer Because they rebelled against the Lord, and lightly regarded the judgments of the Most High: and, believing that such conditions may be both interesting and profitable to young readers, the Author ventured - with a full sense of her own incompetence to do justice to the subject - to attempt a narrative, the scene of which is chiefly laid in Jerusalem; and the period it embraces is one of the most eventful and calamitous that has ever been detailed in history. It may be thought that the circumstances of horror and blodshed have been dwelt on with too much minuteness; but let it be remembered that all the events here related, and many others far more appalling, did actually take place when God avenged himself on his rebellious people: and let it further be remembered, that these things were intended not only for the chastisement of the Jews, but also for the warning of the Gentiles. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.