Christ's reply to the Remark of His Disciples concerning the Temple buildings:-His Discourse on Mount Olivet, (delivered to Peter, Andrew, James, and John), concerning the Destruction of Jerusalem, and His Second Advent. (c. xxiv. 1-44.)

"And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand) then let them which be in Judæa flee into the mountains: let him which is on the

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housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn a parable of the fig tree: When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily, I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the

flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

Watch therefore for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh."

Mark and Luke give the greater portion of these incidents and discourses. The main points on which they differ from Matthew will be noted as they occur. Luke gives also an almost identical discourse with the present, delivered to His disciples on a previous occasion, after the Pharisees had asked for a sign.

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The great Prophetical Discourse on the Mount of Olives treats of the Destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Second Advent. From "Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you" to " And then shall the end come," refers primarily to the Destruction of Jerusalem, and secondarily, and typically, to the Second Advent. From "When ye therefore shall see the abomination," &c., to "There will the eagles be gathered together," relates exclusively to the fate of Jerusalem. From "Immediately after the tribulation," &c., to the end, refers almost solely to Christ's Second Coming.

"To shew,"-i.e., to draw His attention to.

"The buildings,”—¿.e., their splendour, massiveness, and strength.

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Luke makes those addressing Christ speak also of the gifts," (as well as the "goodly stones"), that adorned the Temple, (these "gifts" being doubtless hung up to view).

Christ had just been prophesying the desolation of the Temple in that present generation. Evidently the disciples could not credit this; for their pointing out to Him the solidity of the building was equivalent to saying, “Look at this grand, firm, structure! How is it possible that in so short a time it should be 'left desolate ?""

"THE TEMPLE."

This was the Third Temple. At the accession of Herod

the Great, the Second Temple, built by Zorobabel, was in a very dilapidated condition.

In order to gain the favour of the Jews, (the bulk of whom were opposed to his rule), and to find employment for the malcontent populace, the wily monarch proposed to take down Zorobabel's Temple, and build a grander structure in place of it.

The Jews, however, mistrusted him, on his making them acquainted with his purpose, for they imagined it to be but a scheme for destroying their Sanctuary and religion,

Herod, however, reassured them by promising to have all the materials for the new Temple ready on the spot before the old structure should be moved.

Two years were spent in collecting what was required,— 1000 waggons were used for carrying the stones, &c., and 10,000 skilled artizans, directed by 1000 Levites, who had been taught stone-cutting and carpentering, were engaged on the work.

In B.C. 18 the enterprise commenced. The foundations of Zorobabel's Temple were removed, and fresh ones, consisting of immense blocks of white marble, were laid on the base of Solomon's Temple. The Temple proper was, like the foundations, of white marble: the rest of the structure was constructed of hard, white, stone. The Temple proper was finished in 18 months: the rest of the building, with its Courts, and offices, took 8 more years to make it at all fit for use and it was not till A.D. 65 that building operations ceased, and the Temple was actually finished. The Temple was situated on the S.E. corner of Mount Moriah, where Isaac was typically sacrificed, and where the plague was stayed, under David. It included the Temple proper, and Four Courts. On the highest level of the

Mount, and in the N.W. corner of the whole structure, stood The Temple proper, consisting of—

1. The Porch, facing E., and projecting from 15 to 20 cubits on each side of the main building.

2. The Holy Place, entered by folding-doors opening into the Court of the Priests, and containing nearly the same articles as did the corresponding apartment in the Tabernacle.

3. The Holy of Holies, divided from the Holy Place by a curtain, and containing only a stone, on which

the High Priest placed his censer, on occasion of his annual entrance into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. Above the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies were upper rooms.

The Temple proper was covered with golden plates, which shone dazzlingly effulgent in the sun.

The Court of the Priests—12 steps below the level of the Temple proper, and running all round it.

It contained the Laver, and the Altar of Burnt-Offering. In the N. and S. of this Court were store-rooms for wood, salt, water, &c., and in the S. there was also the CouncilChamber of the Sanhedrin on the E. were two rooms in which the instruments of music were kept and to the N.W. four chambers in which the priests kept the lambs for the Daily Sacrifice, baked the shew-bread, and performed other offices connected with the Temple worship.

The Court of the Israelites, (ie., male Israelites),— on the E. only of the Temple proper, not surrounding it. It was three flights of steps below the Court of the Priests, and was thence separated by a stone balustrade.

The Court of the Women,-so called, not because it was meant exclusively for females; but because even women were allowed to enter it, together with others who might advance no further.

It was 15 steps below the Court of the Israelites, and on the W. of the Temple, not surrounding it. At each corner of this court were rooms for persons suspected of leprosy, or other infectious diseases.

The Court of the Gentiles, (or “ The Mountain of the House")-below the Court of the Women, (whence a stone balustrade separated it), and surrounding the Temple. This outer court was scarcely part of the Temple. It was open to all Gentile nations, who must not penetrate further into the building, and had become, in Christ's time, a kind of exchange and mart.

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It had 5 gates, the two principal being Susan, (which probably was the Gate called Beautiful"), and Solomon's Porch. Attached to the outer wall were halls, surrounding the Temple. In some of these the Levites lived. The largest was called the Royal Hall. One of them was a synagogue wherein the Doctors heard and decided ques