both glorified it, and will glorify it again." The people that heard it said that it thundered, others that an angel spake unto him. Jesus answered, "The voice came not of me, but because of your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the Prince of this world be cast out." And he said, signifying the death he should die, "I if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." While the people questioned, Jesus charged them to walk while the light remained, for yet a little while it would be with them. And withdrawing from them, he repaired to rest, beneath the hospitable roof of Bethany.

XXVIII.

Che Last Supper.

On the morning of the second day of the week, as Jesus returned to Jerusalem, he saw a fig-tree in the way, and looked, if haply he might find any thing thereon, for he hungered. There was no fruit; and he said, "let no man eat fruit of thee, hereafter, forever." And presently the fig-tree withered away. The fig-tree was the Jewish symbol of nationality, the stamp upon their coins. This remarkable miracle has been variously commented upon. By some it is regarded as a prophecy of the fate of the nation. Jesus himself said to his disciples that if they would have faith, they should not only do what was done to the fig-tree, but say unto the mountain, Be thou removed, and it shall be done. But he warned them, at the same time, that to effectual prayer, forgiveness of enemies is necessary, lest they might misinterpret the acted parable of the fig-tree. And we may read in this act of the Saviour's, moreover, that he who can create, can destroy: and that when the office of the Mediator closes, that of the Judge will begin.

Through the four days of the week which passed between the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, and his

betrayal, he was in the Temple teaching; and thither the people daily repaired, early in the morning, to hear him. At night he retired and abode in the mount which is called the Mount of Olives, and the place where he rested was known only to his immediate friends and disciples. The fear of the people protected him from the Pharisees and rulers during the day; and at night they knew not where to find him: and thus it happened that they were fain to engage the treachery of his own disciple, and to compass, by secret bribery, what they could not effect by open violence.

As at the commencement of his ministry he had cast out the buyers and sellers from the Temple, so did he at this Passover. The self-convicted derelicts obeyed the command, and tacitly acknowledged their guilt, but without repentant confession. It was upon this occasion, that the Pharisees demanded his authority, as we have noted in the preceding section. But while the rulers questioned, the people were attentive. Their friendship protected him, even while, by parable and openly, he denounced the hypocrisy of those who had made the Temple the seat of their ritual tyranny, even while he declared that publicans and harlots should enter the kingdom of heaven before the Scribes and Pharisees. Hourly did they perceive the application of parables against themselves; hourly they would have taken him, but feared the people, who recognised the justice of his denunciation against the Scribes and Pharisees, that they laid heavy burdens and grievous to be borne on men's shoulders, refusing themselves to move them with one of their fingers. The people knew

the truth, that the works of the Pharisees were done to be seen of men; that they loved greetings, and to be called Rabbi and the SEVEN WOES which Jesus denounced, the popular mind felt were merited. For these woes were denounced against hypocrisy, against cruel covetousness, against proselytism to error, traditional sophistry, ceremonial righteousness, outward purity, and the varnishing of evil to make it seem good, as sepulchres are whitened, while within they are full of dead men's bones, and all uncleanness. Terrible, exceedingly, was the close of this discourse of him who sat as a Refiner and Purifier: "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell.

The Saviour spared not the ostentation of the people who made a merit of their gifts to the Temple, for as he observed many of them casting in much, and a poor wilow of her penury throwing two mites into the treasury, he declared that she had cast in more than they all. And when some of the bystanders called his attention to the building, and thence to its goodly stones and gifts, he prophesied that the days should come, when not one stone should be left upon another. When he had gone with his disciples to the Mount of Olives, he paused sorrowfully to contemplate the Temple, even as he had before wept over Jerusalem. In answer to the inquiry of certain of the disciples, who asked him when this saying should be fulfilled, he spake at length upon the signs which should precede, and the sufferings which should accompany the desolation of Judea. He cautioned his disciples

of the false prophets which should arise and deceive many, and warned them of the persecution which they should endure for the Word's sake. He admonished them furthermore to flee to the mountains, when they perceived the signs of his coming, to visit Jerusalem with judgment. And it is a fact worthy of all remembrance, that while the unbelieving Jews perished by thousands in Judea, the Christians who were obedient to the warning of the Master, escaped. While the fulfilled prophecies relative to Jerusalem attest, no less than his miracles, to the divinity of the Saviour, the part which yet remains holds a world in awe. It refers to the general judgment; when all nations shall be summoned before the throne of the Son, by whom the world shall be judged: when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed, and the acts of all men shall be tried. Then shall the King say to them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father; and to those on the left, Depart from me ye cursed: and these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal. Then, and not till then, shall be answered the question which was asked of Jesus in Galilee, "Lord, are there few that be saved?" Then will the wisdom of his answer be seen, "Strive to enter in at the straight gate, for many I say unto you will seek to enter in, and shall not be able."

On the evening before the Passover, the priests and elders were assembled in council, debating how, by subtility, they might take Jesus and kill him. And on that day Jesus with his disciples were guests in the house