fortifications which no men or machines could have Joseph. Wars, ever overthrown. This cutting short of the days vi. 9. 1. was designed in the counsels of Almighty God to save the nation from utter extermination, and "for the elect's sake." Whether these latter were the Christians besieged in the doomed city, or Jews whom the dissolution of their polity would attract to the New Faith, or in some mysterious way the remnant of the chosen race according to the elec- Rom. tion of grace, we can only conjecture. Enough for us to know that in the midst of judgment God remembered mercy. Eighteen centuries have passed away, and the monuments of this awful catastrophe still survive for our admonition. On the Via Sacra at Rome, amidst the mouldering sculpture of the Arch of Titus, records of the Fall of Jerusalem may still be traced. City after city has arisen on the ruins of that which was once 66 the joy of the whole earth," but only to succeed to the inalienable heritage of siege and desolation. It is a standing witness to the consequence of neglected warning. Christ closed His threatenings with the caution, "Take ye heed, behold, I have foretold you all things." Prophet after prophet had called to them to repent, but the people turned a deaf or disobedient ear to every xi. 1-6. invitation. Then God sent His Son to arrest their attention, and for three years He went in and out among them, healing their sick, giving sight to the blind, and restoring the dead to life again,-doing everything to win them back and lead them to repentance; but at last, when they despised and rejected Him, and crowned the great pile of their iniquities by an unparalleled crime, they were left, for the vindication of Divine justice, to perish in a corresponding ruin. NOTES. 1 In addition to this it is generally believed that the Roman eagles were actually regarded as objects of worship. 2 This was not possible after the Zealots had fully established themselves, as they refused to allow any one to leave the city. 3 Cf. i. 63. 4 Cf., for distinctive Jewish dress, Edersheim, Life and Times, i. 621-3. The short under-coat only was worn at work; the outer cloak would be an impediment, so was left at home. 5 Josephus is not considered wholly reliable in his record of numbers. The total killed in Jerusalem he puts at 1,100,000. 6 Other causes of minor significance were the desire of Titus to get back to Rome with all possible speed, his friendship for Josephus, and his love for the Jewess Bernice. The first led him to prosecute the siege with the utmost expedition; the two latter to show mercy and consideration to the prisoners. 7 The recorded fact of the escape of Christians seems to point to one of the latter as the right interpretation. LXI. The Prediction of the End. S. MARK XIII. 24-37. 24. But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be dark ened, and the moon shall not give her light, 25. and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. 26. And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. 27. And then shall He send His angels, and shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. 28. Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: 29. so ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. 30. Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. 31. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but My words shall not pass away. 32. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. 33. Take ye heed, watch and pray for ye know not when the time is. 34. For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. 35. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: 36. lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping. 37. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. WE pass now into a region where clouds and darkness are round about us. Perhaps nowhere else are we so vividly reminded of the mysteries in which the Divine Incarnation is shrouded, or Waterland, S. Matt. ix. 4. S. Luke vi. 8; ix. 47; xi. 17. S. Luke ii. 52. so forcibly constrained to confess that "there are secret things which are the Lord's." This deep and solemn utterance of our Blessed Lord to His Apostles, touching the coming of the Son of Man to judge the world, brings together two facts which the finite mind is incapable of reconciling, viz., that as God He knew all things, but as man His knowledge was limited by the conditions of His Humanity. The co-existence in the One Person of omniscience and ignorance can only be apprehended through faith. It is revealed in Holy Scripture, and on that account demands our acceptance; and we have no more right to cavil at the assertion, than we have to doubt that, by virtue of His Deity, He was supremely blessed, while through the infirmities of humanity He experienced sorrow and pain. How often do we find that He exercised a perfect and superhuman insight into the hearts and feelings of others, reading their unspoken thoughts, and telling them what they had carefully concealed, and showing that, as S. Paul said, in Him were all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, although S. Luke writes with equal plainness that His powers of perception were limited by laws of progression, for "He grew in wisdom" as He did "in stature." It is in exact harmony with what we read of Him xi. 35, 43. at the grave at Bethany, that "His holy cheeks S. John were wet with human tears, while the loud voice of Omnipotence was crying, 'Lazarus, come forth!"" The Incarnation of Deity carries with it of necessity difficult contrasts and paradoxes; and for the solution and reconciliation we must wait till we no longer see "through a glass darkly, but face to face." Turn now to the prediction before us. It is one wholly beyond the range of human reason to conceive. It is not a vision of the near future, of which there were premonitory signs, such as a far-seeing mind, accustomed to discern times and seasons, might be able to interpret. He passes wholly beyond the horizon of things visible, beyond the destruction of Jerusalem immediately preceding, and fixes the attention on the coming of the Son of Man at the end of the world. He speaks of certain days that were to follow the tribulation, the beginning of which He had linked with the S. Mark overthrow of the Jewish capital. Its consummation was to be expected only perhaps after centuries of persecution and affliction, during which, as Luke implies, Jerusalem would "be trodden down of the S. Luke Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” xxi. 24. History is the best comment upon the meaning of xiii. 8. |