might overtake them. He entreated them to walk by it while they possessed it.

Thus passed the first day of his final visit to Jerusalem. It began in acclamation and triumph. It saw him hailed by the multitudes of the people, and led in honor to the city and the Temple. To the hopes of his followers, all was bright and prosperous. His enemies were silenced, the people were full of enthusiasm in his favor, the Temple was ringing with their hosannas, and even the Gentiles were crowding to do him homage. Whatever then he might have meant when he talked of suffering and death, it was plain to his friends now, that no such evils were to be feared; and they were ready to congratulate themselves on the close of their toils and the fulfilment of their hopes. But the Messiah himself knew better. He saw that all this show of honor was founded in mistake, and that as soon as the actual truth should be known, it would be withdrawn. There was very little faith among the people, which would survive the disappointment of their present excited expectations. Many, it is true, even among the chief priests, secretly believed in him; but they would not acknowledge it, because they would then be excommunicated. All this he

John xii. 37.

knew; therefore the delusive promises of the day did not move him. Above all, he knew that the great work of benevolence which he was sent by the Father to perform, could be accomplished only through his death. He had neither the thought nor the wish to shun it.

When the evening approached, he withdrew from the city with his disciples, and retired to Bethany. John says, "he did hide himself from them; " and we may suppose, that his object was to escape, for the present, both the pursuit of his enemies, and the unreasonable excitement of the people. He continued to do this every evening to the close of his life.

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EVENTS

CHAPTER XVII.

OF THE SECOND AND THIRD DAYS VARIOUS DISCOURSES OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE HIS PROPHECY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.

THE next day was Monday, and our Lord returned in the morning to Jerusalem. On his way thither, occurred one of the striking incidents, which contributed to give the present week so fearful a solemnity. Seeing a fig-tree at some distance, which had an appearance of bearing fruit, he went to it, but found none. In the hearing of his disciples, he commanded it to continue barren for ever; and it withered away, so that the next morning it was observed by those who passed by it. This was a significant act, like some of those of the ancient prophets, designed as an emblematical representation of the decay which awaited the Jewish state in consequence of its unfaithfulness. It was putting in a visible form, if we may so say, the parable which he had before spoken, of the husbandman who had long looked in vain for fruit upon his tree, and therefore commanded it to be cut down.

On reaching the Temple, he now, as he had done at the last Passover, cleared its courts of the buyers and sellers, and reproved those who thus turned the house of prayer into a den of thieves. At the intermediate festivals, he had left them undisturbed; probably because his enemies were too active and powerful, and he could scarcely with all his caution, escape them. But now his time was come, he was ready to end his work, and the present feeling of the people was such as to screen him from all ill consequences. So that although, when the rulers heard of this act, they thought to seize him, they found the state of the popular mind such that they dared not attempt it. They could not find what they might do, says -Luke, for all the people were very attentive to hear him.

At evening he again left the city, and spent the night at some retired place in the neighbourhood. On Tuesday morning he returned to Jerusalem. On the way they passed by the withered fig-tree; and our Lord took the opportunity of impressing the Twelve with the importance and worth of that undoubting faith, on which the power of working miracles depended. No work, he assured them, would be impossible to them who would ask in faith, and nothing would be denied them;

an as

surance of great importance to them in the arduous and discouraging labors on which they were entering.

On arriving at the Temple, as he walked among the porticos, conversing and teaching, he was addressed by certain of the chief priests and elders, who came to him, probably, as a deputation from the Sanhedrim. They had been prevented from executing their decree against him, by the strong feeling in his favor which existed among the people. It became necessary therefore, to have some plausible pretext for an accusation, or their design would be defeated. With this view, they appointed deputies to put to him the question, in the hearing of the people in the Temple, "By what authority dost thou these things, and who gave thee this authority?" They hoped to make use of his answer to entangle him with the Roman power. Jesus perceived their design, and foiled it by his reply. He said that he would tell them, if they would tell him their opinion of John's baptism; was it from heaven, or of men? This question they declined answering, because they could not do it without committing themselves. He consequently refused to answer their insidious interrogation. He did not stop there. In the

Matt. xxi. 23.

Mark xi. 27.

Luke xx. 1.