TENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

ST. LUKE, XIX. 41–47.

And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it, 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. 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: because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought, saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple.

WHEN Saul the persecutor drew near to the city of Damascus, his heart was filled with the bitterest feelings against the little body of Christians who were there. During his journey to that place, he had been laying his plans for their imprisonment and destruction. And, as he approached

the city, he breathed out threatening and slaughter against all who differed from him. Here was zeal, but not according to knowledge.

When that same Saul, eighteen years after, came to Athens, having meanwhile become an entirely changed man, he now felt very differently towards Christ's people. His feeling was that of love instead of hatred; he looked upon them as his brethren. And as he stood in the streets of that great city, its Christless state filled him with sadness. His spirit,' we are told, was stirred within him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.' He longed to tell them of a Saviour, and to speak to them, out of his full heart, words of love and earnestness. His zeal had now become enlightened.

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But a still more interesting picture is placed before us in the Gospel for today, that of the Saviour Himself approaching the unbelieving city of Jerusalem. There was in His heart sorrow mixed with the purest love, and zeal sweetened by the most winning tenderness. When he was

come near,' we are told, he beheld the city, and wept over it.'

Only two instances are mentioned of the Saviour weeping. We read that as He stood by the grave of His friend Lazarus, and saw those who were nearly related to the buried man, shedding tears around Him, He also wept; for His heart was full of the truest sympathy. And here too, when He beheld the city of Jerusalem, the tear of sorrow started in His eye. A burst of feeling came from His loving heart, and He exclaimed, 'O that thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hidden from thine eyes.' He ever sorrowed with those who were in sorrow, and rejoiced with those who did rejoice.

How this little trait in the character of Jesus endears Him to us! How it emboldens us to come to Him in all our sorrows and our joys, assured that He feels for us; and that He has a balm for every wound, and can give us that which will sweeten and increase every joy. There is not a trial that we are passing through,

or a pang that is breaking our hearts, or a sin that is wounding us, but He mourns for us with the acutest sorrow.

But what made our Lord weep in the instance before us? What was it that drew tears from those eyes, as He looked around on the city before Him? Surely it must have been the obstinate unbelief of its inhabitants. He had come to save them. The lost sheep of the house of Israel,' were the chief objects of His wondrous errand. He came unto His own people, but His own received Him not. He would have gathered them, but they were unwilling. They remained frozen up in unbelief. They persisted in rejecting Him.

This it was that made Him weep on that day. And this same unbelief makes Him weep even now. For is He not ready to embrace us with the arms of His mercy? Is He not ever willing to pardon us, to throw over us the robe of His righteousness, yea, to make us His, eternally His? And yet how many among us turn away from Him, and refuse His

gracious offers! They will not come to Him, that they might have life.

But there was another thought that pierced His heart through and through. He knew that in the case of those Jews the cup of their iniquity was filling fuller and fuller, that it would soon reach the brim, and that before many years were passed God's threatened judgments would be sent forth upon them; '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; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.'

The past career of the Jewish people had been one long day of grace and mercy. But the last three years, when the Saviour had been among them, had especially been 'the time of their visitation,' a time when mercy had been offered to them, but refused, a time when God had visited His people in the person of His beloved Son, but they had rejected Him. And now our