“You boast of your glorious Temple!  I tell you that not one stone of this building shall remain on the other.  For you have heaped up crime upon crime.  I find none of you thirsty, but you are all the worse for drinking.  The cup is full, and the present generation shall know it.  When desolation comes over the land, then let him who is in the valley flee to the mountain, and let him who is in the field not return into the city, and let him who is on the roof not come down, in order to fetch his coat from the house.  Fire and sword will meet him.  Woe to the women and children in those days:  they will cry.  Mountains fall on us and crush us.  It will be a wailing and lamentation such as has never before been under the sun, and never will be again.  Unappeasable anger will overtake the people, Jerusalem will be destroyed, and its inhabitants be led into captivity by strange nations.  And men will be judged according to their good or evil deed.  Of two who are in the field one will be accepted, the other cast out.  Of two who lie in the same bed one will be heard, the other ignored.  The grain shall be gathered in the barns, the weeds shall be burnt in the fire.”

These words caused some murmuring in the crowd, and one of the disciples wrung his hands in despair:  “There will be trouble over this!”

Then His tone became gentler; “But do not despair; the days of that misery shall be shortened.  I will pray for it.  Where there is carrion there are eagles, and from the nation of sinners shall arise martyrs of the truth of God.  As the trees blossom and sprout after the hard winter, so shall the Kingdom of Heaven blossom forth from the purified people.  For the glad tidings will penetrate through the whole universe, and happy will be the nations which accept it.”

“Heaven upon earth?” asked someone from the swaying crowd.  Jesus answered:  “Not your heaven upon earth!  Not that!  For the earth is too weak to bear heaven.  The earth is doomed, and of that doom the downfall of Jerusalem is but a parable.  In that day much distress will come.  False prophets will come and say, We are the saviours of the world!  Their spirit and their truth will blind the people, but it will not be the Holy Spirit or the eternal truth.  A great weariness and despair will come over men’s souls, and they will long for death.  And as men gradually lose their light, their reason, so will the stars in the sky be extinguished; the sea will cover the land, and the mountains be sunk in the sea.  But the fiery token of the Son of God will appear in the dark sky.”

“What is the token?” asked one of the grey-bearded Rabbis.

“He who has eyes will soon see the token of the Lord’s judgment high on Golgotha.  His angels will announce Him in the air, but not in His lowliness as at Bethlehem.  He will come in all the strength and glory in which He sits at the right hand of the Father.  And He will restore every soul to its body, and reward the faithful with eternal joy, and the unbelieving with everlasting punishment.”