LECTURE CII.

LUKE XIX. 41-44.

"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."

OUR Lord was now advancing in simple but solemn triumphant procession towards Jerusalem. "And when he was come near," in his descent from Mount Olivet, and had reached a spot where he had a commanding prospect, "he beheld the city"-he view it attentively, earnestly, and compassionately; and contrasting in his mind its present prosperity and splendour with the misery and desolation which were coming on it, and mournfully pondering the still deeper ruin into which their guilt was to plunge so many of its inhabitants," he wept over it." We never read of the Saviour giving way to merriment or laughter (though, doubtless, the feelings of his benevolent heart often lighted up his blessed countenance with a smile); but we repeatedly read of his weeping. In the account of his feelings and demeanour, when going to the grave of Lazarus, we are told that "he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled," and we find the celebrated verse of two words, "Jesus wept." We read, too, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that, "in the days of his flesh, he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears.”

If it really was so, as has been gathered from Epiphanius, that some of the ancient Christians, or persons who bore the name, wished to expunge from the canon of Scripture what is said of the Saviour's weeping on these too occasions, as if it had been unworthy of so glorious a person to shed tears, it was very strange, and betrayed, at once, a

sinful disrespect for the inspired Word of God, a leaning to the doctrines of Stoical pride and apathy, and an ignorance of what constitutes real excellence of human character. It is certainly a mark of imbecility to be given to weep for trifling reasons; but to weep occasionally, and when there is an adequate cause, instead of being a weakness, is perfectly compatible with true courage and manly sense, nay, is, in fact, a trait in the character of the majority of the most heroic and stout-hearted men of whom we read, either in sacred or profane history. As examples of this from Scripture may be mentioned, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, David, Jonathan, Hezekiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezra, Nehemiah, Peter, and Paul. Who more firm than the apostle of the Gentiles ?-yet he thus writes to the Philippians, "Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction." As for king David, that “mighty valiant man, and man of war," the ancestor, and, in some respects, the type of Christ, it is worthy of notice that he wept at the very place where Jesus now wept; for, it is thus written, in the account of his fleeing from Jerusalem, on the rebellion of Absalom, "David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered; and all the people that were with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up. Nor is it foreign to the defence of this act of weeping, as consonant with the character of the brave, to produce the authority of heathen writers. Homer, then, attributes tears to several of his heroes, Virgil to Eneas, and their respective historians to Alexander the Great, Julius Cæsar, Cato, Brutus, Marcellus, and Scipio; and one of the Latin poets says, "Nature shows that she gives very tender hearts to mankind, by giving them tears. This is the best part of our disposition or feeling." Beyond a doubt, the tenderness which our Lord now displayed harmonized with, and set off by contrast, the wonderful resolution which animated him, when "he turned not back," but "set his face like a flint" to what was now before him.

The circumstances, too, in which he was placed at the time, strikingly illustrated the sincerity and strength of the

* 2 Sam. xv. 30.

+"Mollissima corda

Humano generi dare se natura fatetur,

Quæ lacrymas dedit. Hæc nostri pars optima sensûs."

Juvenal.

benevolence by which he was actuated. Advancing triumphantly amid the hosannas of the multitude, he forgot the honour done to himself in his concern for others. Approaching, too, and intently beholding the place where he was, in a few days, to be insulted, scourged, condemned, and crucified, he dwells not on his own coming sorrows, but expends his grief and tears on the impending calamities of his enemies. Not unlike this was the state of his feelings, when, as he was led forth to be crucified, and as "there followed him a great company of people, and of women, who also bewailed, and lamented him," he turned to them, and said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children."

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In proceeding to consider the cause which drew these tears from the eyes of the Redeemer, we shall find that it was adequate and great. It was twofold, consisting, both in the public judgments which were coming on the inhabitants of Jerusalem as a people, on account of their national guilt, and in the fearful endless condemnation under which most of them were to fall on account of their personal guilt. The impassioned and instructive language in which his account of the cause of his weeping is introduced, is well worthy of our serious regard. He wept over the city, "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."

"The things which belonged," or related "to," or regarded "their peace," their quietness, prosperity, and final happiness, were chiefly the things of Christ himself, or those things which were implied in duly receiving and obeying him, as the only way of their present security, and everlasting salvation. These things belonged more immediately to the Jews than to any other people, inasmuch as of them were the prophets who foretold those things of them; and now among them was the glorious Person himself, who was their substance; and to them they were first published, and their accompanying blessings first proposed. These things it deeply concerned them to "know," that is, to consider, so as to understand and improve them. The Lord complained of old, saying, "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." "If thou hadst known!" that is, Oh if thou hadst known for if thou hadst, it had been well. The expression is abrupt, and very emphatical. To speak after

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the manner of men, the Lord was loath to abandon them now, as of old, when he said, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim ?" He often told them that it would be well with them if they were obedient; but not otherwise. "Oh that there were such an heart in them," said he, "that they would fear me, and keep my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever.”—“ Oh_that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea. "Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries."- -"But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me." "If thou hadst known, even thou"-thou, Jerusalem, inconsiderate and obstinate, though interesting and highly favoured as thou art-"at least in this thy day;"- -now at last, however thou mayst have neglected these things before. That particular season, beyond every other, was Jerusalem's day; it was her day of brightest outward religious light and privilege; it was her day of being honoured with the visible presence of the Son of God, who came to be her Saviour and King; it was her day of finest opportunity; it was her day as a convenient and sufficient time for her to consult her safety and happiness—but yet as a limited time which was soon to come to a close. "But now they" (the things which belong to thy peace), are hid from thine eyes." When men are labouring under wilful and obstinate prejudice, the plainest truths fail to reach their understanding: "the light shineth in darkness, but the darkness comprehendeth it not.” In such cases, with regard to the things which concern men's peace, God is sometimes said to "blind their eyes," and to "hide these things" from them, and to "harden their hearts:" which expressions are intended to teach, not that he exerts any positive influence to darken or harden them— to assert which would be blasphemy; but that, when they have long persevered in rejecting the truth, and resisting his tender mercies, he sometimes, in just judgment, leaves them to the darkness and hardness which they have chosen; and thus, as he resolves not to strive with them any longer, their doom is, of course, sealed, while the sin rests solely with * Deut. v. 29; Isa. xlviii. 18; Ps. lxxxi. 13.

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themselves; and they are, accordingly, said to harden their own hearts, and to close their own eyes. These two views of the same blindness, as the just judgment of God, and as the wilful criminality of sinners, are given in the way in which that passage in the 6th chapter of Isaiah, which is so often quoted in the New Testament, is applied in the two following places. John xii. 39: "Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them." Acts xxviii. 25: "Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive; for the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed." This was the state of mind in which the great body of the Jews were, at the period referred to in the passage before us. It is true that individuals of them were afterwards converted; but Jesus well knew, and declared that there was no hope of any general turning of the nation o the Lord. In confirmation of the correctness of this dismal prediction, we may notice the description given of the Jews by Paul, to the Corinthians,* nearly thirty years after. "Their minds were blinded:" "but even unto this day," "the veil is upon their hearts." And so they continued unbelieving and impenitent, till their iniquity was full: and, therefore, foreseeing and foretelling this, Christ also foresaw and foretold their consequent overthrow.

The prophecy of this dreadful punishment is here given in the following terms: "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, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another." This is plainly a prediction of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, under the command of Titus Vespasian. As, God willing, we shall have another and more natural opportunity of noticing many other circumstances of this fatal war when we come to the 21st chapter, we shall confine ourselves here to those particulars which are directly illustrative of the passage under consideration.

* 2 Cor. iii. 14.