The tragedy of Calvary: or the minute details of Christ's life from Palm Sunday morning till the resurrection and ascension taken prophecy, history, revelations and ancient writings by Meagher, Jas. L. (James Luke), 1848-1920
Now let us turn to St. Augustine's " City of God," that wonderful defense of Christianity, which destroyed the very foundations of paganism, and wounded unto death the Roman empire. There we find (Book xviii. Cap. 23.) the famous prophecy of Christ, which St. Augustine says he got from the pro consul Flacianus, and which he says was written before the Trojan war, 1,300 years before Christ.
She sings of the future time, when: "From heaven will come the King divine," " In him the wicked age will end," "Sadly he will be betrayed," "Men will reject idols," "He alone, unveiled as God, false and faithful shall him own, supreme with saints," "Shattered the gates of hell, his death their doom," "At his death the heavens darken and the moon's splendor dies." Then she foretells the doom of tyrants, the equality of all men, and passes to the last general judgment, when this " King Divine " will sit to judge all mankind as the last trumpet is blown and the dead rise for judgment.
To her poem the grand Dirge the "Dies Irae" alludes, sung at every funeral.
"The day of wrath, that dreadful day.' Dissolved to dust this world He'll lay, As David and the Sibyl say."
The poem we translate is written in the form of an acrostic. Read the first letters of each line down and you have this—
JESUS CHRIST SON OF GOD THE SAVIOUR.
THE SIBYL'S PROPHECY. COMPOSED 1,300 BEFORE CHRIST.
Judgment's seal, earth he'll wet with sweat his sign,
Even from heaven through ages will come the King Divine,
Serving in flesh he'll judge the world, and he alone,
Unveiled as God, false and faithful shall him own,
Supreme with Saints; in him the wicked age will end.
Come now souls whom he shall judge in flesh attend,
Here lies the earth in briers, errors and sin waste,
Rejecting idols and riches men will then make haste,
Instant searching fire earth, sea and sky will then consume,
Shattering the gates of lowest hell his death their doom,
Then he the light of Saints and all flesh will fill the void.
Sadly he'll be betrayed, the wicked by endless fire destroyed,
Occult acts and sins revealing, men's secrets before all told,
Nothing hidden, and God to light will human hearts unfold.
O, what mourning, weeping and gnashing teeth shall then be !
From star choirs no songs, sunlight'll cease, they'll see,
Going round the darkened heavens the moon's splendor dies.
O hills he'll level, deep valleys now before him rise,
Down mid things of men no more shall be sublime or high,
Simply mountains like the fields, and as the sea the sky,
All will cease; dissolved to dust the world will then expire,
Vanish the springs, oceans gone, and rivers dried by fire,
In doleful tones on high he'll blow the trumpet blast,
Over earth's crimes, and works of wretched men aghast,
Underneath the opening ground will hell and chaos disclose,
Right before him the Lord, he'll gather his kingly foes,
While streams of fiery brimstone from heaven flows.
