looked into the Temple, and then went back to spend the night at Bethany.

The two deeds that are recorded of this, the Monday of Holy Week, are closely connected together, and explain one another. It has been remarked that the withering of the fig-tree was the only miracle not of mercy through all the Lord's life on earth, but it was in fact the putting in action of this parable (Luke xiii. 6) :—

He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.

Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?

And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:

And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

There is a large green fig which comes out in leaf early, and with the leaves bears figs, so that though the regular season for figs had not arrived, the appearance of the leaves would be a sign that there ought to be fruit in a month when the corn was already being reaped; and from the time of the law about gleaning, the plucking of fruit by the passer-by has been permitted in Palestine, and even now, from September till the next ingathering, the stray grapes, figs, and olives are free to the traveller. This, then, was a leafy tree of fair promise, but belying it by the entire lack of fruit.

Now three years ago our Lord had begun to come to His own nation seeking fruit. He had begun by the purifying His Father's house of the irreverences that had grown up partly in ignorance, and had used the gentle rebuke, “Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise." But (it is known from other sources) the sale of animals for sacrifice, and the exchange of foreign coin for the skekel and half-shekel of the sanctuary, was a great source of profit, for the fourth of a penny was charged on each halfshekel; and the Sanhedrim (chiefly Sadducees) let out stalls to the Levites, who bred and prepared the creatures for sacrifice, and the booths of the moneychangers in the courts of the Gentiles. All had gone back to what it had been before that cleansing. The fruit was not to be found. The purifying came again, not for hope, but for judgment. The words of rebuke were far sterner

now. Isaiah's promise, "Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people” (Isa. Ivi. 7), is quoted. So it might have been, but for these extortioners; for our Lord adds the rebuke of Jeremiah, in the last worst days of the old Temple, when, after Hezekiah's first cleansing, it had defiled itself again, and Josiah's last cleansing, before its destruction was going on, in vain, “Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?” (Jer. vii. 11). It was because of that defilement that the Temple fell in flame, blood, and ruin; because the nation showed leaves only-the fair show of obedience to the law-no fruit.

So with the Church. God has sent His Son to cleanse her, and He will purify her of all that shall offend. But the evil, corrupt, irreverent, world-tainted part of the Church will be cut off and cast away. Shall we be of her?

So with our hearts. We have once been cleansed. “But ye are washed; but ye are sanctified ” (1 Cor. vi. 11). We are ❝ the temples of God, for the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.” "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy” (1 Cor. iii. 17). Our own spirit, soul, and body, are temples to be watched over. They have once been hallowed; they need to be kept with all reverence, purity, and diligence, or the end will be such an end as that of the Jews—such an end as was shown in the fate of the fig tree.

When the disciples shuddered the next morning at the fate of the tree, our Lord again showed them how nothing should be impossible to real faith. The very mount of Jerusalem itself before them might, if expedient, be uprooted, and cast into the sea. Nay, has it not been uprooted from being the holy mountain of God, and cast away? Mountains of unbelief are uprooted from the heart and, cast into the sea. That actual but useless miracles were not intended is clear; for though no doubt the power was with the apostles, they never worked them. People, especially children, have been known to be so puzzled with this verse, as actually to try experiments whether they had faith enough to work such a miraclenot perceiving that the very trial shows a want of faith, and that they are thinking of themselves, not simply doing God's work. Certainly they are not praying in the simple, trustful, certain way our

Lord again enjoins, coupling therewith again the warning upon forgiveness, as if to show that they might by no means work wonders of vengeance when personal feeling was involved. St. Paul, afterwards speaking of faith removing mountains (1 Cor. xiii.), clearly refers to this saying.

LESSON CI.

THE PARABLE OF THE TWO SONS.

A.D. 30.-MATT. xxi. 23-32.

And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?

And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things.

The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?

But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.

And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.

But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in my vineyard.

He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and

went.

And he came to the second, and said likewise. said, I go, sir and went not.

And he answered and

Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not but the publicans and the harlots believed him and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.

COMMENT.--The visit which our Lord made to the Temple on Monday appears to have been spent in the purifying it from the traffic in the courts, and also in working miracles of which we have no account, though they are casually alluded to by St. Matthew.

No doubt the sellers and moneychangers appealed to the Sanhedrim from whom they hired the stalls. The chief priests and

elders who composed it were thus ready to confront our Lord when He came in on Tuesday morning, and demand of Him by what authority He had done this.

His authority was, as we well know, manifold. It was that of God in His own Temple. It was that of a Son in His Father's house. It was that of the descendant of Hezekiah and Josiah continuing their work. It was that of the Messiah, Who was to restore all things. But to none of these did He appeal. He asked them in return by what authority John baptized, since John had avowedly prepared for Him, and had been commissioned by the same authority. No answer came. They spake for expediency, not truth. They would not acknowledge John's Divine mission, because that directly testified to JESUS being Christ come to set up His kingdom; and they would not, on the other hand, pronounce him an impostor, for fear of offending the people who deeply honoured his memory. And as they knew, but would not answer, cur Lord would not reply in words to the question their hearts answered for themselves. Instead, He went on to the parable of the man and his two sons, one of whom began ill and ended well, and the other began with fair promises, but never performed them. They are like two of the classes of persons in the 18th chapter of Ezekiel, the castaway and the penitent; and our Lord, perhaps with St. Matthew, Zacchæus, and the woman who had been a sinner full before Him, nay, and many another who had turned from their evil ways, pointed out to the priests and elders how much nearer these were to the kingdom than they themselves could be when gathering round to defend against Him the aouses in the Temple, which they encouraged for the sake of gain.

In the parable was the same allusion as in the end of that of the Prodigal Son, namely, to the Gentiles who had gone astray at first, but should heartily come into the vineyard of the Lord; and the Jews, who, having been brought up to that work, and who had been pledged to it by their circumcision, yet turned away and refused when the time came.

And in daily constant application to ourselves, the parable warns us against thinking promise and profession all, and shows that even those who have gone wrong at first may yet have the call to come back, and do their work that they have neglected.

LESSON CII.

THE PARABLE OF THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.

A.D. 30.-MATT. xxi. 33-46.

Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:

And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.

And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.

Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise.

But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.

But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew

him.

When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?

They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.

Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.

And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.

But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.

COMMENT.-There was the completion of the many songs of the vineyard with which every Jew was familiar; the fruitful bough by a well (Gen. xlix. 22), which God's Beloved had set in a very fruitful hill, and fenced with closest care (Isaiah v ), the vineyard of red wine so tenderly planted, and where “the Branch that He had de so strong for His own self had at length shot forth " lxxx.). That vineyard our Lord sets before His hearers.