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

i. Jesus prepares TO Enter the
City, VS.. IS.
On the only occasion when we are told
of Jesus riding, we are told that he was
mounted on a colt, the foal of an ass.
This was manifestly of his own deliber-
ate choosing.
chosen; by a preconcerted plan he OBJ
tanned it at the apportune moment.
The ass is with us such a grotesque
beast, and such a symbol of stupidity ia
customary speech, that we naturally pause
before the spectacle of King who claims
the world as his own approaching his cap
ital on the back of an ass.
We should rise out of our inherited
prejudice against this useful if stupid ami
NAL. We need, for the time, to forget our
western associations.
The ass had been, from the early ages,
in high repute among the Jews. 1t was
equally good for work in the field, in the
mill, and for riding. The horse was not
introduced among the Jews until the time
Israel had begun to wane; the horse was
devoted to war, while the ass was the sym
Dol of peace. On the ass David and the
Judges had been mounted.
There was another reason why Jesus
would at this time prefer the ass to the
horse or the camel. "Every Jew" says
Geikie, expected that Jesus would enter
Jerusalem poor and riding on an ass (Zech
9:9). No act could be more perfectly in
keeping with the popular conception of a
king of Israel, and no words could express
more plainly to Jewish observers that the
coming one proclaimed himself the Mes
siah.7
When Jesus had once decided that his
followers, who had persisted in making
him an earthly king, should for one day
be free to make the vain attempt, he nat
urally yielded himself to the fulfilment of
the popular expectation. He therefore
chose the appearance demanded by the
popular Interpretation of the old prophecy.
The immense caravan coming from the
country to Jerusalem to attend the feast
had, after the delay of the Sabbath, climbed
the eastern slope of Mount Olivet. The
crowd on the way had spontaneously burst
into loud acclaims. With the improvisa
torial turn of the East, the acclaimS as
sumed rhythmical form. A combination
of passages from the prophets, rendered
the general acclaim both prayer and
psalm. As sung in the early church,-it
being in fact the first distinctively Chris
tian hymn, the hailing-song is thus re-
produced:
"Give the triumph, Jehovah, to the Son of David
Blessed be the kingdom of our Father David, now
to be restored in the name of Jehovah!
Blessed be he that cometh, the King of Israeli in
the name of Jehovah
Our peace and salvation, now coming, are from
aboye
Praised be God in the highest heavens, for sending
salvation and peace by the Son Of Dayid'
The pilgrims marching before the
Mounted One also cast their abbas in the
road, and cut off young sprouts from the
trees, olive and fig and walnut, and fronds
from the palm, and made his path like that
of Modecai when he came from the palace
of Ahasuerus, the ground being strewn
with robes and myrtle twigs.
So the Son of David came to the city of
David in triumph.
But lit was" says DIR. Geikie, "a triumph
in wondrous contrast with that of earthly
monarchs. No spoils of towns or villages
adorned it; no trains of captives destined
to slavery or death. The spoils of his
sword and his spear were seen only in the
trophies of his healing and love; for the