The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-03-30

benefactor"
While the procession was ascending Oil
vet, the air was filed with enthusiasm.
"But mingled among the crowd" says Far
rar, "werc some of the Pharisees, and the
joy of the multitude was to them gall and
NORWOOD What meant these Messianic
cries and kingly titlesa Were they not
dangerous and unscemly? Why did he
allow them? Master, rebuke thy disci-
ples.' But he would not do SO. IF these
should hold their peace, he said, the
stones would Immediately cry out"
The Pharisees may have looked toward
the Tower of Antonio as they uttered their
warning. But it was needless. Watchful
Roman eyes could see only festive throng
hailing some popular peasant with mock
kingly honors. Why should the cohorts
interfere with festal sports SO accordant
with peaceful content?
The shoulder of the hill was reached;
Jerusalem in its glory appeared full to the
unobstructed vision. at is hard for u.s."
says Geikie, "to imagine now the splendor
of the view. The city of God, seated on
her hills, shone at the moment in the morn
ing sun. Straight before stretched the
vast white walls and Buildings of the Tenn
pie, its courts glittering with gold, rising
one above the other; the steep sides of
the hill of David crowned with lofty walls;
the mighty castles towering above them
the sumptuous palace of Herod in its green
parks, and the picturesque outlines of the
streets. Over all rested the spell of his
tory of two thousand years, of present
which craved salvation in its own perverted
way and the mystic Holy of Holes linked
the seen to the invisible"
2. Jesus is Received with Ac-
cIaim,-vs 7-Io.
When the multitude on Olivet was
first seen by the people in Jerusalem it
must have appeared like vast mantle
cast over the crown of the Mount. The
spectacle appealed powerfully to the aver
age Jewish heart. Enthusiastic shouts
from the city populace rent the air.
But Jesus, while pausing and looking
down upon the city, was strangely moved.
The agonies and insults of the days which
follow will bring no moisture to his eye;
but the sight of this city, and his vision of
its inevitable future, caused his tears to
freely flow, and his voice to break into
wall. In fragmentary speech he speaks of
the perversity of the people which would
not accept the only proffered means of de-
livery and safety. They must now, by the
decree of moral destiny, reap the fruit of
their past. He foresaw the Fastening day
when the Romans would dig trench and
raise stockade completely enc:rcling the
city, and reduce its splendors to ruin and
its devoted people to unparalleled agony.
"The contrast" says Edersheim, twas in
deed terrible between the Jerusalem which
rose before him in all its beauty, glory and
security, and the Jerusalem which he saw
in vision dimly rising on the sky, with the
camp of the enemy round about it on every
side, hugging it closer and closer in deadly
embrace; then another scene in the shift
ing panorama, and the city laid with the
ground, and the CORY bodies of her chill
dren among her ruins; and yet another
scene,-the silence and desolateness of
death, not one stone lett upon another"
1t is world-history that forty years later,
AID. 70, Jerusalem was destroyed and the
temple was burned and laid in ruins by the
Roman army under Titus, after the most
terrible siege on record, r which the be-
sieged fought among themselves for miser-
able scraps, chewed belts and shoes, and
tore off the leather from their shields, and
ate wisps of hay, and did more horrible
things than accords with our complacency
to recall and persisted to the number of
one million and one hundred thousand
while ninety-seven thousand remained to
be taken prisoners. Josephus says that,
excepting section of the west wall "there
was nothing left to make those who came
thither believe that it had ever been in
habted." This fate had been incurred by
persistency in the turbulent perversity from
which the Gospel is deliverance.
We see now, by the light of history, as
Jesus foresaw, that destruction came upon
Jerusalem because it did not accept the
proffered opportunity of salvaton,-not
knowing at the time the divine visitation.
3. Jesus in the City,-vs. IL.
The sorrow of Jesus did not, however,
long hush the numberless hosannas. AS
the procession moved down the western
slope of the mount, it was met by friendly
procession from the city.
All the combined multitude swelled the
song of acclaim.
The procession accompanied Jesus
through the gate which was open to all
Jews coming to the festival. The narrow
streets through which the procession
passed were hung with flags and banners
for the feast, and crowded at every point
of elevation, as were all roofs and win
dows, with eager faces. "Who is this?"
passed from lip to lip in the intervals of
the hailing-song. at is Jesus, the Prophet
of Nazareth" shouted back the crowd of
northern pilgrims, proud of the honor the
new prophet had brought to their province.
Arriving at the temple Jesus dismounted
and Immediately passed into the temple
enclosure. Here, for that day, he was
Withdrawn from the sight of the multitude.
He passed some hours in the temple court.
He again predicted his death and his tri-
umph.
The thing noted in his demeanor by Pc
fer was a strange look of ownership, as he