ness, intemperance. The very mention of these sins raises up the thoughts of misery and the images of sorrow in the mind. Whoever looks around him, and forms his judgment from what he knows of persons and of families, will see that they are " "the wicked" to whom "there is no peace." Whereas, there may be peace, there may be happiness, even amidst the trials of disease and the straits of poverty, wherever there is peace with heaven; wherever there is reconciliation with God through Christ Jesus, and the heart is regulated by his Spirit, and the life governed by his laws. The result of those laws, and the fruits of that Spirit, are brotherly kindness, gentleness, meekness, contentment, fidelity, temperance, patience, charity: qualities which are alike approved of God, and valuable to men: profitable for the life that now is, as well as for that which is to come.

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Well, therefore, might the prophets foresee the advent of the King, as a ransom of rejoicing, and call upon Jerusalem to shout, for her King cometh," and to rise and shine, for the glory of God had risen upon her. And justly might the people who now witnessed this season take up the strain, and praise God with a loud voice, saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord.

The Pharisees, however, as might be expected, were jealous of these triumphal honours.

39. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.

2 Zech. ix. 9. Isa. lx. 1.

40. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

It could not be, that no testimony should be given to the Son of God now "manifest in the flesh." Rather should "the stone cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber should answer it:" proclaiming honour to God, who had visited and redeemed his people: and proclaiming reproach to the unworthy nation, who were rejecting the mercy shown them.

May our hearts ever respond to the words, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord. "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath raised up a horn of salvation for us; that, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life." +

LECTURE LXXIV.

JESUS LAMENTS OVER THE IMPENITENCE OF JERUSALEM.-DRIVES THE BUYERS AND SELLERS FROM THE TEMPLE.

LUKE xix. 41-48.

41. And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,

42. Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

43. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side.

44. And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

In this most affecting passage, our Lord laments over the case of Jerusalem, which had not known the things belonging to her peace. It belonged to her peace that she should repent, and receive the Messiah whom God had sent with an embassy of mercy. John the Baptist had traversed Judea, saying, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Jesus had gone through the country, proclaiming, "I am come a light into the world, that as many as believe in me should not abide in darkness, but have eternal life." He had commissioned his disciples to "go into every city and place," preaching the gospel of the kingdom. When Jonah had entered Nineveh, declaring, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown:" the Ninevites believed the prophet's words, and turned to God in weeping, fasting, and prayer. But the inhabitants of Jerusalem rejected God's message, and said, "We will not have this man to reign over us." They would not believe that anything was wanting to their peace. They pretended to know God, while in works they denied him. They were carnal; and the carnal mind is enmity

against God. They were covetous: and covetousness is idolatry. Their hearts were hardened, and their eyes blinded, as to those things which really belonged to their peace.

And this was their day: the season in which these things might be known. When Noah warned the antediluvians of the approaching deluge, that was their day their day of grace. When the angel sent Lot to his sons-in-law, to say, "Up, get ye out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city" it was their day: their hour of grace.1 And this was the day of the Jewish people. They had long acted unworthily of their knowledge and their privileges: and now, at last, he had sent "his beloved Son: it might be they would reverence him when they saw him;" when they saw him "full of grace and truth;" when they saw his glory, "the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." It was true, he came not with magnificence, with outward pomp and show. But he came with works of mercy, and works of power, and with words of heavenly authority: and they would have recognised him as their predicted and expected King, if their hearts had not been set against the repentauce which he enjoined, and the self-denial which he practised, and the purity which he required. Light was come into the world, but they chose rather to abide in darkness. The things belonging to their peace were hid from their eyes and they knew not the time of their

visitation.

When the compassionate Jesus thought of this 12 Pet. ii. 5-8. Gen. xix. 14.

when the prospect of the city lying before him reminded him of the miserable consequences awaiting their obstinacy, he wept over it. And think, what expressive tears! Think of the truths which they reveal! "Tears, such tears, falling from such eyes, the issues of the purest, the best governed feeling thas ever was, show the greatness of the cause.

Certainly they show this awful truth; that there is a consequence inseparable from unrepented sin, which God would not that any should suffer, but which men must suffer, unless they repent and be converted. Jesus beheld the city, and wept over it. Were it not then easy to pardon it? To put an end at once to the sorrows awaiting Jerusalem, and to his own grief on account of them? - It could not be so. As there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, so there is sorrow over the sinner that repenteth not. But that sorrow does not prevent the divine decree, by which misery follows sin: it arises out of it, and testifies its certainty but the decree remains unchangeable. If there is a thought that should move the heart of him, who has not yet known the things belonging to his peace, it is surely this: Jesus wept over the evils of Jerusalem, yet those evils were inflicted! "As the judge bewails the sad end of the malefactor, whom justice obliges him not to spare or save." "3

There is still, however, another reflection, and one abounding in consolation. How readily will he, who wept over the impenitent, receive the