A great cry, a piercing cry, raised by hundreds of voices, a cry which
resounds through the streets of the city, and which is echoed by the
surrounding hills. What can be the matter? What can be the cause of this
mournful wail?

There was a great cry in Egypt on that awful night, when there was not a
house in which there was not one dead. That was the great cry of terror.

Esau raised a great cry when he found that he had lost his father's
blessing, the great cry of disappointment.

There arose a great cry in the council chamber of Jerusalem, when the
Apostle Paul stood before his judges,--the cry of conflicting opinion.

But the great cry which is sounding in our ears now is no cry of terror
or of disappointment, and the men who join in it are all of one mind;
yet the cry is none the less bitter or heartrending. As we listen to it,
we can distinguish the shrill voices of women mingled with the deeper
ones of men, and we notice also, that, although the cry is one of sorrow
and distress, there is a deep undertone of anger and complaining.

Who are crying, and what is the cause of their distress? Who are
crying? An excited mob of men and women, standing in the streets of
Jerusalem. Look at them well, surely we know some of their faces. Is it
possible, can it be, that we recognize some of those whom we saw working
so happily and cheerfully on the walls? What a change, what a terrible
change in their faces!