Luc 19:41-44

He beheld the city, and wept over it

Christ weeping over Jerusalem

I. THE EXCLAMATION OF CHRIST, AND HIS TEARS IN THEIR REJECTION TO THE GUILTY CITY.

1. He remembered days of old. On these sinners the object of His mission seemed entirely lost.

2. But with the self-denying love of a patriot, and the grace of a Saviour, He looked beyond His own sufferings, and fixed His eye on theirs. What an appeal to His pity was there I The city was beleaguered and lost--the dwelling of Holiness was laid waste.

3. The sentence is broken and incomplete. It is eloquently completed by the tears, which are the natural language of compassion, and express its intentness beyond all words. What the present might have been!

II. THE BEARING OF THE RECORD ON OURSELVES.

1. There are things which pre-eminently belong to your peace.

2. The period allotted to you for attending to them is definite and brief.

3. Should your day close, and leave you unsaved, your guilt will be great, and your condition remediless.

4. This is a spectacle calling for the profoundest lamentation.

5. The tears of Jesus prow His unextinguished compassion for the guilty. (John Harris.)

The tears of Jesus

I. LOST PRIVILEGES.

“Oh, that thou hadst known the things which belong unto thy peace.”

II. LOST OPPORTUNITIES.--“Even thou in this thy day. Nations and men have their day:

1. Youth.

2. Special occasions, as Confirmation.

3. Religious strivings within our own manifold opportunities, which may be prized and used, or neglected and abused.

III. LOST SOULS.--“But now they are hid from thine eyes.” (Clerical World.)

Jesus weeping over perishing sinners

I. THAT GOSPEL BLESSINGS ARE CONDUCIVE TO THE PEACE OF MANKIND, They are the things which belong unto our peace. Here let us more particularly observe--

1. What those things are to which our Lord refers. The blessings of grace in this world. Deliverance--from bondage, condemnation, and guilty fears Psaume 116:16; Ésaïe 12:1; Psaume 34:4); and holiness--both of heart and life (Abdias 1:17; Romains 6:22).

The blessings of glory in the eternal state. An eternal life of rest, felicity, honour, and security (Romains 2:6).

2. How these things are conducive to our peace. They belong unto our peace as they produce sweet tranquillity of mind (Ecclésiaste 2:26). This arises from peace with God (Romains 5:1); peace of conscience 2 Corinthiens 1:12); a peaceable disposition (Jaques 3:18,); the joy of victory (Romains 8:37; 1 Corinthiens 15:37); and the joy of hope Romains 5:2; Romains 14:17). Our text teaches us--

II. THAT THESE BLESSINGS MUST BE KNOWN TO BE ENJOYED. “Oh that thou hadst known,” etc. The knowledge thus necessary must be--

1. A speculative knowledge; that is, we must have a correct view of them as they are exhibited in God’s Word--For we are naturally without them Romains 3:16). We must seek them to obtain them (Job 22:21; Ésaïe 27:5).

And we must understand them in order that we may seek them aright: we must understand the nature of them; the necessity of them; and the way to obtain them (Proverbes 19:2). The knowledge here required must also be--

2. An experimental knowledge. This is evident--From the testimony of inspired apostles (2 Corinthiens 5:1; 2 Corinthiens 13:5; 1 Jean 5:19). And from the nature of gospel blessings; spiritual sight, liberty, and health, must be experienced to be enjoyed. Our text teaches us--

III. THAT A SEASON IS AFFORDED US FOR ACQUIRING THE KNOWLEDGE OF THESE BLESSINGS.

1. This season is here called our day, because it is the time in which we are called to labour for the blessings of peace (Jean 6:27; Philippiens 2:12; 2 Pierre 3:14).

2. This season is favourable for seeking the things here recommended; for they are set before us (Deutéronome 30:19); we have strength promised to seek them with (Ésaïe 40:31); and we have light to seek them in (Jean 12:36). Hence, we should also recollect--

3. This season is limited: it is only a day. Our text also teaches us, with respect to gospel blessings--

IV. THAT IT IS GOD’S WILL THEY SHOULD BE ENJOYED BY US. This is certain

1. From the wish of Christ--“O that thou hadst known,” etc. Such a wish we find often repeated by God in His Word, and expressed in the kindest manner; see Deutéronome 5:29, Deutéronome 32:29; Ésaïe 48:18.

2. From the tears of Christ. These demonstrate the sincerity of His wish Deutéronome 32:4); the great importance of godliness (1 Timothée 4:8); and the dreadful doom of impenitent sinners (Romains 2:8).

3. From the visitations of Christ. He visited us by His incarnation; and He still visits us by the strivings of His Spirit, the gifts of His providence, and the ministry of His Word.

V. THAT ALL WHO SEEK THESE BLESSINGS ARIGHT WILL OBTAIN THEM.

VI. THAT THE REJECTION OF THESE BLESSINGS IS PUNISHED WITH DESTRUCTION. (Theological Sketch-book.)

The tears of Jesus

We are told three times of Christ weeping: in this passage; in Jean 11:35; in Hébreux 5:7.

1. JESUS WEPT IN SYMPATHY WITH OTHERS. At Bethany.

1. It is not sinful to weep under affliction.

2. The mourner may always count on the sympathy of Jesus.

3. When our friends are mourning, we should weep with them.

II. THE TEAR OF JESUS’ COMPASSION. Text.

1. Observe the privileges which were granted the Jews, and neglected.

2. Observe the sorrow of Jesus for the lost.

III. THE TEARS OF PERSONAL SUFFERING. Probably the Agony in Gethsemane is alluded to in Hébreux 5:7.

1. Think not that because you suffer you are not chosen.

2. Nor that you are not a Christian because you feel weak. (W. Taylor, D. D.)

The tears of Jesus

I. Our Lord, by His tears over Jerusalem proclaims to us THE DUTY OF LOOKING AT THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD IN THEIR TRUE LIGHT, of estimating all that surrounds us, not as it appears to the hope, the fear, the enthusiasm, the pride of many, but as it is viewed in the sight of God, whose judgment shall alone stand, when the false standards and false excitements of the moment have passed for ever away.

His tears speak to us the same lesson which He elsewhere taught in words, “Judge not after the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” For there was apparently little to draw forth the tears of our Blessed Lord at that moment. And is it not so now, my brethren? Do we not exult and rejoice in things, and persons, and scenes which would call forth only tears from our Saviour? Oh that we may strive to see things in their true light--that is, in the light of the eternity in which we shall soon find ourselves I oh that we may estimate them, not by the standards of sense and time, but in the true balance of God’s unerring judgment

II. And, secondly, we see, as from other passages of Holy Scripture, THE EXCEEDING SINFULNESS OF SIN, in that sin has the power of calling forth tears from the Saviour in the midst of so much exultation and beauty. Ah! my brethren, nothing is so truly mournful as sin. It is the great evil of life; neither poverty, nor sickness, nor slanderous words, nor the contempt of the world, have any real sting in them apart from this.

Take sin away, and the world becomes a Paradise. Take sin away, and the lives of the unfortunate are filled with happiness. It is sin which has cast a blight over existence on every side of us: trace each form of suffering and sorrow around you to its ultimate source, and you will find that source to be sin. Alas! brethren, there are many who come to Church, Sunday after Sunday, and even approach the Holy Communion, and yet know nothing of their own hearts, and the deadly poison of unrepented sin, which dwells within them, and the real peril in which their souls are placed. (S. W.Sheffington, M. A.)

Christ weeping ever Jerusalem

Tears, looked at materially, admit a very ready explanation; they are secreted by a gland, they are drawn from the fluids of the body, and are rounded and brought down by the law of gravitation. The poets give the spiritual meaning, when they call tears the blood of the wounds of the soul, the leaves of the plant of sorrow the hall and rain of life’s winter, the safety valves of the heart under pressure, the vent of anguish-showers blown up by the tempests of the soul.

If God had a body He would weep. God does grieve, and ii He had a corporeal nature, tears would not be inconsistent with all the recognized attributes of Deity. There is an eloquence in tears which is irresistible. There is a sacredness in tears which almost forbids the discussion of weeping. There is a dignity in tears which makes them consistent with the utmost intelligence and strength and nobility of character.

There are men with hard heads, cold hearts, good digestion, and full purses, who know nothing of tears; but he who values true manhood and spiritual riches will not envy such men. “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

1. Jesus wept as a man, as the man Christ Jesus, as the perfect man Christ Jesus. “Behold the man.” To the utmost extent of human sadness was Jesus grieved, when “He beheld the city, and wept over it.”

2. Jesus wept as a Jew. The broadest love may be discriminating, and may include strong individual attachments. Jesus was interested in every land and in every race. No land or race was shut out from His heart. But there were special attachments to Palestine, and strong ties to the holy city.

3. Jesus wept as a teacher. Light had come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. And this was the condemnation. He was conscious of a pure heart in His teaching, and He saw the corruption of the human heart in the rejection and contempt of His instructions.

4. Jesus wept as a foreteller, as a prophet. He who was the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His person, declared the mind and will and heart of God, when, beholding this doomed city, He wept over it.

5. Jesus wept as the Messiah. He was the woman’s seed promised in Paradise. He was the Shiloh seen by Jacob. He was the prophet revealed to Moses. He was the Prince of peace spoken of by Isaiah. To Him gave all the prophets witness. The law was His shadow. Much was written in the Psalms and prophets concerning Him. His history and character, His words and works, fulfilled various scriptures written by inspired men.

His claim to the Messiahship was distinct and full and clear. Yet He was despised and rejected of men. Yet when He came to His own, His own received Him not. This was a sorrow for His Father’s sake. He was the fufilment of His Father’s ancient and oft-repeated promise. He was His Father’s unspeakable gift. What a requital of infinite and eternal love! And this was a sorrow for the people’s sake. Instead of receiving Him they were looking for another. But Jesus knew that theft eyes would fail by looking in vain.

6. Jesus wept as a Saviour. He looked upon those who would not be saved, and wept over them. Measure His sorrow by His knowledge and by His hatred of sin; measure His sorrow by His own freedom from sin; measure His sorrow by the love of His great heart. To see evil, and to be unable to remedy it, is anguish; but to see evil, and to be able and willing to remove it, and to be baffled by the wilfulness and waywardness of the sufferer or of the evil-doer, is anguish keener and deeper still. Jesus knew all this when “He beheld the city, and wept over it.”

7. Jesus wept as God manifest in flesh. The God grieved and the man wept. The Divine nature does suffer, and these tears reveal the fact. The whole nature of the Christ, the Redeemer of men, was sad, when Jesus on this occasion wept. These tears, then, were the tears of a man, a patriot, a teacher, and a prophet. They were the tears of the Messiah and the Saviour and the God-man. They were both human and divine, tears of pity and patriotism, tears of sympathy and of displeasure, tears of a wounded spirit and of a loving soul. (S. Martin, D. D.)

The tears of Jesus

1. The tears of Jesus Christ are compassionate tears. Like His heavenly Father, He has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth. The office of the Judge is not His willing office. It made Him sorrowful to see men sin. It made Him sorrowful to see men reject the gospel. It made Him sorrowful to see men choose their own misery.

2. Again, the tears of Jesus are admonitory, warning--some have even called them terrible tears. He would not have wept, I think we may say with confidence, merely because a little pain, or a little suffering, or even a little anguish and misery, lay before us. He shrank not from pain: He endured suffering--yea, the death of the Cross. He faced anguish and misery, and flinched not. There was only one thing which Jesus Christ could not endure--or, if He endured it for an hour Himself, certainly could not advise others, nor bear others, to encounter without Him--and that was the real displeasure, the prolonged hiding of the countenance, the actual, terrible, punitive wrath of God.

It was because He foresaw that for impenitent, obstinate, obdurate sinners, that He wept these bitter tears. I call them admonitory tears; I will even consent to call them terrific tears. They seem to say to us, “Oh, presume not too far!”

3. I will add another thing. The tears of Jesus were exemplary tears. As He wept, so ought we to weep. We ought to weep tears of sorrow over our sins. We ought to weep tears of repentance over our past lives, over our many short-comings and backslidings, omissions of good and commissions of evil, lingering rebelling obstinate sins, cold poor languishing dying graces. But more than this. We ought to weep more exactly as He wept. He wept not for Himself: so also, in our place, should we.

4. I will add, without comment, a fourth word--the tears of Jesus Christ are consolatory tears. Yes, this, in all their accents, is the sweet undersong--Jesus Christ cares for us. The tears of Jesus are, above all else,consolatory. They say to us, “Provision is made for you.” They say to us, “It is not of Christ, it is not of God, if you perish.” They say to us, “Escape for your life--because a better, and a higher, and a happier life is here for you!” (Dean Vaughan)

Christ weeping over sinners

I. WHAT OUR LORD DID: “He beheld the city, and wept over it.”

1. He wept for the sins they had committed, and the evil treatment which He Himself should receive at their hands.

2. He foresaw the calamities which were coming upon them, and desired not the woful day.

3. Spiritual judgments also awaited them, and this was matter of still greater lamentation.

4. The final consequence of all this also affected the compassionate Saviour; namely, their everlasting ruin in the world to come.

II. Consider WHAT OUR LORD SAID AS WELL AS DID, when He came near and beheld the city--“If thou hadst known,” etc. Here observe--

1. The whole of religion is expressed by knowledge. Not speculative, but such as sanctifies the heart and influences the conduct--the holy wisdom that cometh from above.

2. That which it chiefly concerns us to know is, “the things which belong to our peace.”

3. There is a limit to which this knowledge is confined. “This thy day.”

4. When this time is elapsed, our case will be for ever hopeless: Now the things which belong unto thy peace “are hid from thine eyes!” Improvement.

(1) did Christ weep for sinners; and shall they not weep for themselves? Does not God call us to weeping; and does not our case call for it?

(2) Let us beware of rejecting the gospel, and trifling with our privileges, lest we be given up to final impenitence. Insensibility is the forerunner of destruction:

(3) Let those who are truly acquainted with the things which belong to their peace be thankful, and adore the grace which has made them to differ. (B. Beddome, M. A.)

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Christ weeping over Jerusalem

I. I observe, in the first place, that THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS, THE KNOWLEDGE OF WHICH IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR ETERNAL PEACE.

1. It deeply concerns you to know, for example, in what situation you stand, with respect to God and the world to come.

2. Again, it deeply concerns us to know, whether God, by any means, may be reconciled, to those who have set themselves in opposition to His will.

3. Once more, it deeply concerns you to know, what state of mind is required in you, in order that you may profit by the grace and mercy of your dying Saviour.

II. I observe, secondly, that THE SON OF GOD IS MOST AFFECTIONATELY DESIROUS THAT WE SHOULD KNOW THESE THINGS.

III. NÉANMOINS, LA COMPASSION DU CHRIST N'ARRÊTERA PAS LE COURS DE SA JUSTICE, SI CES CHOSES SONT ENFIN IGNORÉES.

1. Combien inexcusable est le pécheur irréfléchi, qui, après tout, ne connaîtra pas les choses qui appartiennent à sa paix !

2. Mais réfléchissez, d'un autre côté, à quel point tout pécheur qui revient sera le bienvenu ! ( J. Jowett, MA )

Les larmes du Sauveur sur Jérusalem

La vue de Jérusalem, alors que Jésus était sur le point d'y entrer, suggéra la pensée de la misère et de la dégradation nationales. Il regarda le Temple, le lieu où s'étaient offerts les adorations et les sacrifices des générations successives ; il était maintenant profané. Il regarda la ville, la métropole de Judée, et le théâtre de hautes solennités, et elle était peuplée de transgresseurs ; allait bientôt être réduit par la puissance d'une puissance conquérante, ses rues à inonder de sang, et ses bâtiments à raser.

Notre Seigneur pourrait surtout faire allusion à une calamité extérieure, mais pouvons-nous douter que l'état moral des habitants de Jérusalem soit ce qui l'inquiétait le plus ? Le destin dont on parle est descendu comme un acte de vengeance, infligé par Dieu. Mais Jésus pensait aussi à un naufrage plus pitoyable encore. Il réfléchit aux conséquences du péché non pardonné. Ce n'était pas simplement le renversement de la tour et du palais, la destruction de ce qui avait été pendant si longtemps une « maison de prière » ; cela n'appelait pas l'expression d'une préoccupation aussi profonde. C'était principalement une idée de la ruine spirituelle qui s'abattait sur ceux qui avaient transgressé contre tant de lumière et d'avertissement, et qui avaient résisté à des plaidoiries si sérieuses et si répétées.

I. En parlant davantage de ces versets, nous pouvons considérer, tout d'abord, les mots pour impliquer, que le peuple de Jérusalem AVAIT APPRÉCIÉ UN « JOUR » - DE GRÂCE, APPROCHANT MAINTENANT À UNE FIN - un temps qui n'avait pas suivi d'une amélioration appropriée et adéquate.

II. Considérons la manifestation des sentiments de notre Seigneur et ses paroles à cette occasion, comme montrant L'IMPORTANCE DE PRENDRE LE TEMPS EN CHARGE AUX CHOSES QUI « APPARTIENNENT À NOTRE PAIX ».

III. Il semblerait qu'il y ait un temps défini pour le faire. Bien qu'il soit vrai que l'esprit de Dieu ne cesse pas de lutter avec l'homme ; bien qu'il n'y ait pas de danger que le pécheur soit entièrement abandonné à ses idoles, différer une si grande œuvre est dangereux et insensé. Est-ce le meilleur moment pour se tourner vers Dieu quand la langueur et la décadence attaquent le cadre ?

IV. La déclaration de notre Sauveur, lorsqu'il a déploré l'impénitence de Jérusalem, est UN ENGAGEMENT DE SON PRÉOCCUPATION POUR L'ÉTAT DES PÉCHEURS EN GÉNÉRAL. Observez combien il a été patient, disant encore : « Retournez-vous contre ma réprimande. » Ils avaient tué ses prophètes ; ils étaient sur le point de verser son sang ; ils avaient jeté le déshonneur sur la loi et les nominations du Très-Haut, le provoquant à la colère ; pourtant le chagrin de Jésus montrait le chagrin qui remplissait son âme.

Telles étaient les paroles de Celui qui ne connaissait pas la ruse, et à qui l'iniquité était odieuse. Soyez donc encouragé, ô pécheur, quel que soit le nombre de vos iniquités et le piquant de votre sentiment de culpabilité, à rechercher sa faveur. ( ARBonar, DD )

Jésus pleurant sur les pécheurs

I. LE PÉCHÉ N'EST PAS UNE BAISSE.

II. CHAQUE HOMME A SON JOUR DE VISITATION MISÉRICORDANTE. Mais la miséricorde a ses limites. Le jour de grâce se terminera.

III. LE DOOM DU PÉCHEUR EST SCELLÉ QUAND LE CHRIST L'ABANDONNE. Le salut coulé sous pression hors de portée. Espoir parti.

IV. C'EST UNE SAISON PERDUE DE MISÉRICORDE ET D'OPPORTUNITÉS QUI ENGAGERA TELLEMENT L'ÉTERNITÉ DES PERDU. ( JM Sherwood, DD )

Des larmes en voyant une multitude d'hommes

Il y a toujours quelque chose d'émouvant dans la vue d'une multitude d'hommes. Le persan Xerxès versa des larmes en regardant les rangs interminables défiler devant lui sur le chemin de la Grèce. Le fer Napoléon fondit une fois en passant en revue la vaste armée qui le suivit dans sa campagne de Russie. Et quand les cœurs les plus fiers, les plus sévères et les plus insensibles ont manifesté leur émotion, que devons-nous attendre du pitoyable Fils de Dieu ? Chaque fois qu'il voyait la multitude, et particulièrement la multitude de la ville, il était ému de compassion.

Cette masse de vie, palpitante et palpitante comme une mer agitée ; ce piétinement incessant de pieds avides et ce rugissement confus d'innombrables voix ; ce volume incommensurable d'espoir et de désespoir mêlés ; cette gamme infiniment variée de visages, vieux et jeunes, insouciants et anxieux, joyeux et misérables,, de filles riantes et de veuves au cœur brisé, de joies joyeuses et de vieillards hagards, aux regards affamés ; ce cortège incongru de richesse et de pauvreté, de misère et de superflu, de haillons et de velours, de vulgarité et de raffinement, de respectabilité et de vice, de vie grasse et bien nourrie et de vagabondage sans-abri, de pureté et de honte, de douce espérance religieuse et de morne désespoir, de splendeur titrée et de vagabondisme sans nom, de pieds ailés d'espoir grimpant au but de l'ambition et de pieds se précipitant vers le fleuve sombre pour mettre fin à la tragédie des souvenirs amers dans un dernier plongeon glacial ; cette vie aux mille têtes, avec tous ses isolements égoïstes, sa solitude féroce au milieu de la foule qui se bouscule, chaque cœur connaissant sa propre amertume ou jubilant de sa propre joie, inconnue et sans sympathie de ses voisins ; cette affreuse course de passion et de quête frénétique dans laquelle les coureurs oublient qu'ils sont des âmes immortelles avec l'image de Dieu imprimée sur chaque visage.

Comment était-il possible pour lui, à qui toutes les âmes étaient chères, tous les enfants du Père céleste, comment était-il possible pour lui de considérer cela, ou d'y penser, sans émotion fondre en larmes ? Quel homme ou quelle femme d'entre nous peut y penser sans partager sa pitié et son intérêt pathétique ? ( J. Greenhough, MA )

La compassion du Christ pour le peuple juif

I. DEMANDEZ CE QUI ÉTAIT DANS L'ÉTAT DU PEUPLE JUIF, QUI A ÉMU LA COMPASSION DE NOTRE SEIGNEUR. Les privilèges du peuple juif étaient avant tout des terres. Ils étaient bénis d'une théocratie divine ; et à eux appartenaient, entre autres privilèges les plus importants, les oracles de Dieu. Qu'est-ce que Dieu aurait pu faire qu'il n'ait pas fait pour eux ? La compassion de notre Seigneur fut donc émue par leur inflexible obstination. Leur péché était le péché des hommes qui haïssent la lumière, de peur que leurs actes ne soient réprouvés par elle !

2. Hostilité invétérée. Que la grandeur et la puissance, lorsqu'on en abuse, doivent être haïes, n'exciterait pas notre surprise ; mais que la bonté et la miséricorde, lorsqu'elles sont exercées, soient haïes, pourraient bien exciter notre surprise, si elles n'étaient abondamment prouvées dans leur histoire.

3. Par leurs jugements imminents.

II. CONSIDÉREZ CE QUE L'ÉTAT ACTUEL DE CE PEUPLE DEMANDE DE NOS MAINS. ( W. Marsh, MA )

Les larmes et les lamentations de Jésus

I. Premièrement, nous devons contempler le chagrin INTÉRIEUR DE NOTRE SEIGNEUR.

1. Nous notons à son sujet qu'il était si intense qu'il ne pouvait être retenu par l'occasion. L'occasion en était une à part entière : une brève lueur de soleil dans une journée nuageuse, un aperçu de l'été au milieu d'un hiver cruel. Cela devait être une douleur profonde qui allait à l'encontre de toutes les exigences de la saison et violait pour ainsi dire tout le décorum de l'occasion, transformant une fête en deuil, un triomphe en lamentation.

2. La grandeur de sa douleur peut être vue, encore une fois, par le fait qu'elle a dominé d'autres sentiments très naturels qui auraient pu être, et peut-être été, excités par l'occasion. Notre Seigneur se tenait au sommet de la colline où il pouvait voir Jérusalem devant lui dans toute sa beauté. Quelles pensées cela a éveillé en Lui ! Sa mémoire était plus forte et plus rapide que la nôtre, car ses facultés mentales n'étaient pas affectées par le péché, et il pouvait se souvenir de toutes les choses grandes et glorieuses qui avaient été dites de Sion, la cité de Dieu.

Pourtant, comme il se souvenait d'eux tous, aucune joie n'est entrée dans son âme à cause des victoires de David ou de la pompe de Salomon ; le temple et la tour avaient perdu tout charme pour lui ; « la joie de la terre » ne lui apporta aucune joie, mais à la vue de la vénérable ville et de sa sainte et belle maison, il pleura.

3. Ce grand chagrin nous révèle la nature de notre Seigneur. Comme la personne du Christ est complexe ! Il prévoyait que la ville serait détruite, et bien qu'il fût divin, il pleura. Tandis que sa nature d'un côté voit la certitude de la perte, la même nature d'un autre côté déplore la redoutable nécessité.

4. En cela, notre Seigneur révèle le cœur même de Dieu. N'a-t-il pas dit : « Celui qui m'a vu a vu le Père » ? Ici donc, vous voyez le Père Lui-même, même celui qui disait autrefois : « Comme je vis, dit le Seigneur Dieu, je n'ai aucun plaisir à la mort des méchants ; mais que les méchants se tournent », etc.

5. D'après une leçon pratique, nous pouvons remarquer que ces pleurs du Sauveur devraient beaucoup encourager les hommes à lui faire confiance. Ceux qui désirent son salut peuvent s'approcher de lui sans hésitation, car ses larmes prouvent ses désirs sincères pour notre bien.

6. Ceci aussi, je pense, est un avertissement aux ouvriers chrétiens. Ne parlons jamais du sort des méchants durement, avec désinvolture ou sans sainte douleur.

7. Permettez-moi d'ajouter que je pense que la complainte de Jésus devrait instruire tous ceux qui viendraient maintenant à Lui quant à la manière de s'approcher. Alors que je vous ai fait appel tout à l'heure, y avait-il quelqu'un qui a dit : « Je voudrais bien venir à Jésus, mais comment irai-je ? La réponse est : venez avec tristesse et prière, comme il est écrit : « ils viendront en pleurant, et avec des supplications, je les conduirai ». Alors que Jésus vous rencontre, rencontrez-Le.

III. Nous devons maintenant considérer les LAMENTATIONS VERBALES DE NOTRE SEIGNEUR. Ceux-ci sont enregistrés dans les mots suivants : « Oh que tu avais su, toi même, du moins en ce jour, les choses qui appartiennent à ta paix ! mais maintenant ils sont cachés à tes yeux.

1. Tout d'abord, remarquez, il se lamente sur la faute par laquelle ils ont péri - "Oh que tu avais su." L'ignorance, l'ignorance volontaire, était leur ruine.

2. Le Seigneur déplore la félicité qu'ils avaient perdue, la paix qui ne pouvait être la leur. « Oh que tu connaissais les choses qui appartiennent à ta paix. »

3. Mais notre Seigneur se lamenta aussi sur les personnes qui avaient perdu la paix. Observez qu'il dit : « Oh que tu avais su, même toi. Tu es Jérusalem, la ville favorisée. C'est peu que l'Egypte n'ait pas su, que Tyr et Sidon ne savaient pas, mais que tu ne devais pas savoir ! Ah, mes amis, si Jésus était ici ce matin, il pourrait pleurer sur certains d'entre vous et dire : « Oh, tu l'avais su, même toi. »

4. Notre Seigneur pleura à cause de l'occasion qu'ils avaient négligée. Il dit : « Au moins en ce jour-là. » C'était un jour si privilégié : ils avaient été avertis auparavant par des hommes saints, mais maintenant ils avaient le Fils de Dieu lui-même pour leur prêcher.

5. Le Seigneur Jésus pleura encore parce qu'il vit l'aveuglement qui les avait envahis. Ils avaient si vite fermé les yeux qu'ils ne pouvaient plus voir : leurs oreilles qu'ils s'étaient bouchées étaient devenues ternes et lourdes ; leurs cœurs qu'ils avaient endurcis s'étaient grossis ; de sorte qu'ils ne pouvaient ni voir avec leurs yeux, ni entendre avec leurs oreilles, ni sentir dans leur cœur, ni se convertir pour qu'il les guérisse. Eh bien, la vérité était aussi claire que le soleil dans les cieux, et pourtant ils ne pouvaient pas la voir ; et il en est de même de l'évangile à cette heure pour beaucoup d'entre vous, et pourtant vous ne le percevez pas.

6. Enfin, nous savons que les grandes écluses de la douleur du Christ furent arrachées à cause de la ruine qu'il prévoyait. ( CH Spurgeon. )

Les larmes de Jésus

Etrangement mystérieuses sont ces larmes ! Mais ils étaient aussi réels que mystérieux - solennellement et terriblement réels - les plus amers qui soient jamais descendus d'un visage accablé de chagrin. C'étaient les larmes d'un homme, mais l'expression de la Divinité ; et les considérant à la lumière de l'ancien amour et de la complaisance particulière avec laquelle Jérusalem et ses habitants avaient été divinement considérés, nous pouvons les désigner comme les larmes d'une affection déçue.

Combien saumâtres et combien ont été de telles larmes, comme elles sont tombées, chaudes et brûlantes, des yeux de pleureurs au cœur brisé ! Il y a les larmes du père, jaillissant du fond de l'amour parental, en pensant à son enfant prodigue. Il y a les larmes de la mère, pleurée sur une fille perdue, des larmes qui auraient été moins amères si le gazon vert les avait reçues au lieu d'un souvenir de honte. Amères, en effet, sont de telles larmes, mais pas aussi intenses de douleur que « les larmes de Jésus pleuraient sur les âmes perdues.

« J'ai lu quelque part l'histoire d'un voyageur qui a trouvé un fragment d'arc parmi les ruines de Jérusalem ; et en calculant sur les principes de la construction architecturale, il prouva que l'arc, une fois terminé, devait avoir enjambé le golfe qui était près de la ville, et reposer de l'autre côté. Cette arche en ruine, aux yeux de ce voyageur, indiquait ce qu'elle était à l'origine, par opposition à ce qu'elle était alors.

Le péché dans l'âme révèle la même chose. Dans l'homme, en dehors du péché, nous voyons ce pour quoi l'âme a été faite. Dans le péché, nous voyons ce qu'est l'âme, une noble chose en ruines. Il est solennel de marcher parmi les vestiges d'un temple sacré, de ramasser ici et là des fragments de ce qui était autrefois des objets de beauté et de force ; voir en un seul endroit des morceaux d'une fenêtre antique ; dans un autre, le segment d'un pilier colossal ; ailleurs, un vestige de travail de remplage, avec des morceaux de mosaïque riche et curieuse.

Mais quelles ont dû être les émotions de Jésus, alors qu'il se tenait là devant les puissances effondrées, et contemplait les saintetés profanées des temples humains ! — des âmes autrefois si belles en beauté et si glorieuses en force, que le Créateur les regarda, et « voici, ils étaient très bons ! » Maintenant si complètement une épave que le Sauveur regarda : « Il regarda et pleura ! Combien redoutable est le pouvoir de l'homme ! Ici, nous voyons le Fils de Dieu - Celui dont la puissance et la domination sur toutes les forces matérielles, les agents sataniques et les maux physiques étaient absolus.

Aucun pouvoir ne s'est dressé sur son chemin en tant que médium résistant, sauf un ; et ce fut une puissance de résistance qui ouvrit les écluses de la douleur de l'âme, arracha des larmes de ses yeux et éclata dans l'exclamation convulsive : « O Jérusalem ! Jérusalem!" A la lumière de ces larmes, quelle terrible responsabilité se présente pour revêtir l'esprit humain ! Quelle puissance de volonté ! , d'une volonté qui peut résister à la volonté divine ! « Combien de fois je le ferais, mais pas vous ! » ( GH Jackson. )

Larmes une vraie marque de virilité

S'il en était bien ainsi, comme on l'a appris d'Épiphane, que quelques-uns des anciens chrétiens, ou des personnes qui portaient ce nom, voulaient rayer du canon de l'Écriture ce qui est dit des pleurs du Sauveur à ces deux occasions, comme s'il avait été indigne d'une personne si glorieuse de verser des larmes, c'était très étrange, et trahissait à la fois un manque de respect coupable pour la Parole inspirée de Dieu, un penchant pour les doctrines de l'orgueil et de l'apathie stoïciens, et une ignorance de ce qui constitue la véritable excellence de caractère humain.

C'est assurément une marque d'imbécillité que de pleurer pour des raisons insignifiantes ; mais pleurer occasionnellement, et quand il y a une cause adéquate, au lieu d'être une faiblesse, est parfaitement compatible avec le vrai courage et le sens viril, non, est, en fait, un trait dans le caractère de la majorité des plus héroïques et vaillants -hommes de cœur dont nous lisons, que ce soit dans l'histoire sacrée ou profane. A titre d'exemples tirés des Écritures, on peut citer Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, David, Jonathan, Ézéchias, Ésaïe, Jérémie, Esdras, Néhémie, Pierre et Paul.

Qui plus ferme que l'apôtre des Gentils ? Pourtant, il écrit ainsi aux Philippiens : dont la fin est la destruction. Quant au roi David, cet « homme puissant et vaillant et homme de guerre », l'ancêtre et, à certains égards, le type de Christ, il est intéressant de noter qu'il pleura à l'endroit même où Jésus pleurait maintenant ; car il est ainsi écrit, dans le récit de sa fuite de Jérusalem, à propos de la rébellion d'Absalom, « David monta par la montée du mont des Oliviers, et pleura en montant, et il avait la tête couverte ; et tout le peuple qui était avec lui se couvrit la tête à chacun, et ils montèrent en pleurant en montant.

” 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 AEneas, and their respective historians to Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, 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. (James Foote, M. A.)

The tears of love

I heard the other day of a bad boy whom his father had often rebuked and chastened, but the lad grew worse. One day he had been stealing, and his father felt deeply humiliated. He talked to the boy, but his warning made no impression; and when he saw his child so callous the good man sat down in his chair and burst out crying, as if his heart would break. The boy stood very indifferent for a time, but at last as he saw the tears falling on the floor, and heard his father sobbing, he cried, “Father, don’t; father, don’t do that: what do you cry for, father?” “Ah! my boy,” he said, “I cannot help thinking what will become of you, growing up as you are.

You will be a lost man, and the thought of it breaks my heart.” “Oh, father!” he said, “pray don’t cry. I will be better. Only don’t cry, and I will not vex you again.” Under God that was the means of breaking down the boy’s love of evil, and I hope it led to his salvation. Just that is Christ to you. He cannot bear to see you die, and He weeps over you, saying, “How often would I have blessed you, and you would not! “ Oh, by the tears of Jesus, wept over you in effect when He wept over Jerusalem, turn to Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

If thou hadst known, even thou

Christ’s lament over Jerusalem

Let us observe, briefly, that in our Lord’s lament over the doomed city there is to be traced a threefold vein of feeling.

1. The tears and words of Jesus Christ are the tears and words of a true patriot, for Jerusalem was the heart and head of the nation. It was, politically speaking, more what Paris is to France than what London is to England, and although Christ’s ministry had been largely spent in Galilee, we know from St. John’s Gospel that at the great festivals He had laboured often and continuously in the sacred city.

It may be thought that there was no place for patriotism in the heart of Jesus Christ--that coming as He did from heaven with a mission to the whole race of men, and with a work to do for each and for all, He could not thus cherish a mere localized and bounded enthusiasm--that, as all had interest in Him, His interest must reciprocally be for all and world-embracing--that as in Him, according to His apostle, “there is neither Greek nor Jew, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free,” but all are one, so He must have been Himself incapable of that restricted and particular concentration of thought and feeling and action upon the concerns of a single race or district which we practically understand by patriotism.

My brethren, there is an element of truth in this. Jesus Christ, although a Jew by birth, belonged by His freedom from local peculiarities to the whole human family. He was, in a higher, more comprehensive, more representative sense than any before Him, human. All that was best, all that was richest in humanity, had its place in Him, and this is, at any rate, one import of the title by which He was commonly wont to speak of Himself as the Son of Man.

But His relation to the whole race did not destroy His relation to His country any more than it destroyed His relation to His family--to His mother, to His foster-father, to those first cousins of His who, after the Hebrew manner, are called His brethren. Certainly He subordinated family ties as well as national ties to the claims of the kingdom of God--to His Father’s business as He called it when only twelve years old.

But because He kept these lower sympathies, claims, obligations, in their proper place, He did not ignore--He did not disavow them. To Him, as the Son of Mary, His family was dear; to Him, as the Son of David, the history of His country was dear. He would have parted with something of His true and deep humanity had it been otherwise; and therefore when He gazed on the city of His ancestors (for such it was) and saw in vision the Roman conqueror already approaching, and casting up earthworks on that very hill on which He was standing, and then by and by entering the sacred city with fire and sword, nor resting from His work till he had ploughed up the very foundations, till not one stone had been left upon another, His Jewish heart felt a pang of anguish which became tears and words. “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.”

2. But the lamentation of Christ over Jerusalem had a higher than any political or social meaning. The polity of Israel was not merely a state: it was a church as well. It was the kingdom of God among men. It is this which explains the passionate emotion towards Jerusalem which abounds in the Psalter--the joy in her glory, in her beauty, in her world-wide fame--the enthusiasm which can “walk about Zion and go round about her andtell the towers thereof”--the anger deep and strong which cannot forget that in the day of Jerusalem it was Edom which joined in the cry for her destruction--the woe which cannot, which will not, be comforted when she lies before the heathen in her ruin and her desolation.

It was as a theocratic kingdom--as we should say, a Church--that Jerusalem and the whole Jewish polity was so dear to the religious Jew; and this aspect of the sacred city underlies those words which Jesus spoke on the road from Bethany. Once more. Jerusalem was not merely a country or a church; it was a hive of men and women: it was a home of souls. Among these, to each of these, the Divine Christ had preached, but had preached in vain it was not the threatened architecture of the Herodian temple which drew tears from those Divine eyes.

It was not chiefly the tragic ending of a history rich in its interest and its incident. It was the condition, the destiny, the eternal destiny of the individual men and women of that very generation to which Christ had ministered? What of them? They had heard Him; and what were they after hearing Him? Ah! it was over those souls for which He was presently to shed His blood that Jesus wept His tears.

It was souls that for Him made up Jerusalem. And it is in this last sense that our Lord’s words come most closely home to us. Our influence upon our country, upon our portion of the Church, is necessarily very, fractionally small. We are each one as a private soldier in a great army, who has only to obey orders that are given by others; but in our individual capacities it is otherwise. Here as single souls we decide as well as act.

Here we are free to make the most of opportunities: we are responsible for doing so. And opportunities come to us as we walk along the path of life, as Christ came to the Jews eighteen centuries ago. They come to us: we see them coming. We know that they are at hand--that they are close upon us. We know--we might know--that they will not be within our reach always--perhaps not to-morrow. It is the time, the solemn time, of our visitation.

It is some friend who has brought before us for the first time the true meaning, the true solemnity, the blessedness of life. It is some change of circumstances, some great soul-subduing sorrow which has forced upon us a sense of the transitory nature of all things here below. It is some one truth or series of truths about our Divine Lord, His person, or His work, unknown, or known and rejected before, which has been borne in upon us with a strength and clearness of conviction which we cannot, if we would, possibly mistake, and which involves obedience, action, sacrifice, as its necessary correlatives.

It is an atmosphere of new aspirations, of higher thoughts, of longings to be other and better than we are, that has, we know not how, taken possession of us. It is the presence and the breathing, could we only know it, of a heavenly Friend who haunts our spirits that, if we will, He may sanctify them. Christ--in one word--has been abroad by His Spirit in the streets and secret passages of the soul, as of old He was abroad in the by-ways and the temple-courts of Jerusalem; and the question is, Have we welcomed Him?--Have we held Him by the feet, and refused to let Him go except He bless us? We are worse off though we may not trace the deterioration. We have suffered if not without yet assuredly within. We have been tried, and failed; and failure means weakness entailed upon, incorporated into, the system of the soul. (Canon Liddon.)

Tenth Sunday after Trinity

We have here, not only weeping but tearful lamentation, weeping accompanied with voice and words; and the weeper is the God-man, Christ Jesus. Eternal Deity is not an unfeeling Almightiness. He has a heart, and that heart can be touched, and grieved, and moved with compassion, and stirred with emotions.

I. GOD INTENDS GREAT THINGS FOR THOSE TO WHOM HE HAS GIVEN HIS WORD AND ORDINANCES. He had chosen Jerusalem, and set up His temple there, and made it the centre of His most particular dealings with the elect nation, that it might reflect His glory, show forth His praises, and be the crown and rejoicing of the whole earth. The thing meant to be reached and made the everlasting possession of its people, is here summed up by the Saviour in the word “peace; not mere rest from disturbance and strife; nor yet only health and well-being, as the word often denotes in the Old Testament; but that which is the subject of Divine promise, the highest results of God’s mercy and favour, the true Messianic blessing of everlasting freedom from the distresses and consequences of sin, and exaltation to near and holy relationship with God and heaven. And great things are meant for us, even the same things of “peace” which pertained at first to the ancient Jerusalem.

II. THERE IS A DAY OR SEASON WHEREIN TO KNOW AND ATTEND TO THE THINGS THAT RESPECT THIS “PEACE.” And unto us have their forfeited privileges now descended. This is our day, beaming with all the light and blessings which once belonged to the Jews, only marked by an easier ritual and a better economy (Hébreux 12:18).

III. THE DAY OF GRACE HAS ITS BOUNDARIES OVER WHICH GOD’S SAVING MERCIES DO NOT FOLLOW THOSE WHO MISIMPROVE THEM. There was a Jewish age which ended in judgment, and the cutting off of those who failed to improve it; and so this present age must also end. The day of grace is limited, on the one side, by the lateness of the period in life at which the gospel comes to a man, and, on the other, by the failure of the faculties necessary to handle and use it.

It is also quite possible for one’s day of grace to terminate while yet both reason and life continue. There may be a loss of the external means and opportunities of salvation, or such a separation from them, as for ever to prevent our reaching it. And where there has been long and persistent resistance of grace, habitual suppression of religious convictions and feelings, wilful refusal to fulfil known duty, and persevering withstanding of the influences and impulses of the Spirit of God, there is not only a possibility, but great danger of bringing on a state of callous indifference, and incapacitation which puts the offender beyond the reach of salvation.

IV. THE TERMINATION OF THE DAY OF GRACE, WITHOUT HAVING SECURED THE BLESSING FOR WHICH IT WAS INTENDED, IS AN AWFUL CALAMITY. In the case of Jerusalem it brought tears and lamentations from the Son of God. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)

The solicitude of Christ for incorrigible sinners

I. SPECIFY SOME OF THE MORE OBVIOUS CHARACTERISTICS OF INCORRIGIBLE MEN. There are several classes of people who, to say the least, are greatly exposed to unyielding impenitence, and who give fearful indication of final ruin.

1. This may be affirmed of men of a sceptical turn of mind. Such men are very apt never to become pious.

2. Another class of persons who are rarely made the subjects of grace are those of notoriously loose and vicious habits.

3. It may also be remarked, that men who are in the habit of making light of sacred things, and trifling with God, seldom become men of piety. If they can scoff at religion, if they can deride its conscientious disciples, there is little reason to believe they will ever become its disciples themselves.

4. In the same melancholy multitude are likewise found all those who are ardently and eagerly attached to the world.

5. There is another class of men who exhibit fearful symptoms of deep degeneracy, and they are those whose chosen companions are the guilty enemies of God and all righteousness. Men cannot habitually associate with those who are destitute of all moral principle, and have no fear of God before their eyes, without partaking of their character.

6. Those persons also give strong indications of being incorrigible, who have become hardened under religious privileges.

7. Still more hopeless are those who have outlived conviction, and resisted the Holy Spirit.

8. There is one class of persons more whose condition is as hopeless as that of any we have mentioned; I mean, the hypocrite and self-deceiver.

II. We proceed, in the second place, to inquire, WHAT THERE IS IN THE CONDITION OF SUCH PERSONS TO EXCITE THE SYMPATHY AND SOLICITUDE OF CHRIST.

1. Their determined rejection of offered mercy. This is like a dagger to Christ’s heart.

2. Their perversion of the means of grace.

3. Their utterly depraved character. And now, in conclusion, I cannot forbear remarking, in the first place, how unlike the Spirit of Christ is the apathy of the people of God in view of the perishing condition of impenitent men. Secondly, our subject strongly enforces, the importance of a diligent and anxious improvement of the day and means of salvation. Once more, in view of our subject, we may not avoid the inquiry, Are there none in this assembly towards whom the Saviour is now exercising the same tender compassion, which He exercised over incorrigible Jerusalem? I only add, in the last place, if such are the compassions of Christ towards guilty sinners, what confidence may we have that He will save all that come to Him. (G. Spring, D. D.)

Christ weeping over Jerusalem

I. WHY DID HE WEEP? It has been supposed that the picture of that approaching ruin and desolation which was coming so rapidly upon the unconscious capital, at once appalled and overwhelmed Him. He sketches that picture in strong and rapid strokes Himself (Luc 19:43). And that which added to it an element of profoundest gloom, was the unconsciousness of those whom such a doom was threatening.

Scarce a soul in Jerusalem seems to have been greatly sensible either of the national decadence or of its own individual peril. Must it not have been this that made Him weep? I do not doubt that it was an element in that Divine and unmatched sorrow. But that sorrow loses its profoundest significance unless we see that it had another and deeper element still. What is it, that in the thought of a wise and good man costs him the deepest pang when he encounters the waywardness and wrong-doing of his own child? Is it merely that, as he looks forward, he sees the inevitable misery which that waywardness will entail? But you may be sure that such a parent is thinking of something else with a keener anguish still.

He is thinking, “What must the nature be that is so insensible to love and duty and goodness!” He is thinking, “What are the moral sensibilities of one to whom baseness and ingratitude and wrong-doing are such easy and instinctive things!” He is thinking, “What have I to hope for from a child whose ruling impulse come out in deeds like these!” And even so, I think, it was with Christ.

Nay, we are not left to our surmises. His own words tell us what made Him weep: “If thou thine eyes.” It was this spectacle of human insensibility, of eyes that would not see, and of ears that would not hear, that broke the Saviour down. The love of goodness, the longing for righteousness, the aspiration for nobleness and spiritual emancipation--these were dead in them. And it was this that made Christ weep.

II. And this brings me to that other question suggested by these tears of Christ. WHAT DID THEY MOVE HIM TO DO. Remember, that so far as the Jerusalem of that day was concerned, He Himself intimates the case to have been hopeless. And when that scornful indifference on their part was exchanged at last for a distinctive enmity, with that needless prodigality, as doubtless it seemed even to some of His own disciples, He flung away His life.

Flung it away? Aye, but only how soon and how triumphantly to take it again! Such a history is pregnant with lessons for to-day. There are a good many of us, who from the elevation of a thoughtful observation, are looking down on the city in which we live. How fevered and faithless and morally insensible seem multitudes of those who live in it. How can such a one look down on all this and not weep? God forbid that such a spectacle should leave any one of us insensible or unmoved! But when that is said, let us not forget that with Christ weeping was but the prelude and forerunner of working.

There were tears first, but then what heroic and untiring toil! I hear men say, no matter what good cause invites their cooperation, “It is of no use. Most men are bound to go to the devil; it is the part of wisdom to get out of the way and let them go as quickly as possible”; and I brand all such cries, no matter in what tones of complacent hopelessness they may utter themselves, as treason against God and slander against humanity.

Faithlessness like this is a denial of God, and of goodness as well. And as such, it is an atheism with which no terms are to be made nor any truce to be kept. For, high above our blinded vision there sits One who, as He once wept over Jerusalem and then died for it, now lives for Jerusalem and for all His wayward children, and who bids us watch and strive with Him for those for whom once He shed His blood! And if He is still watching, even as once He wept over His creatures, God forbid that of any human soul you and I should quite despair! And therefore least of all our own souls.

And so, while we weep, whether it be over the evil that is in others or in ourselves, our tears will be rainbows, bright with the promise of an immortal hope. Aye, far above the sorrows and the sins of the city that now is, we shall see the splendours of the New Jerusalem that is yet to be. (Bishop H. C. Potter.)

The sinner’s day

I. THAT THE SINNER HAS HIS DAY OF MERCY AND HOPE.

1. It is a period of light. Night is the season of darkness.

2. A period of activity. We must work now, or never.

3. An exceedingly limited period. “ A day.” But a step from cradle to tomb.

4. The present period is our day.

II. THIS DAY IS ACCOMPANIED WITH THINGS WHICH BELONG TO THE SINNER’S PEACE. By peace here we understand the welfare, the salvation of the sinner. The peace of God is the pledge and earnest of every blessing. Now, in this day we have--

1. The gracious provisions of peace. Christ has made peace by His cross, and before us is the cross lifted up.

2. The invitations and promises of peace belong to this day.

3. The means of obtaining peace belong to this day.

III. THAT IF THESE THINGS ARE NOT KNOWN NOW, IN THIS OUR DAY, THEY WILL BE FOR EVER HIDDEN FROM OUR EYES. Now observe--

1. The future state of the sinner is one of night. As such it is a period of darkness.

2. This state of night will be everlasting.

APPLICATION: We learn--

1. That the sinner’s present state is one of probation and mercy.

2. That God sincerely desires the salvation of souls.

3. That all who lose their souls do so by their own impenitency. (J. Burns, D. D.)

Christ’s lamentation over Jerusalem

I. THE EXHIBITION OF CHARACTER WHICH IT GIVES US. Here we perceive--

1. The Saviour’s deep interest in the state of man.

2. The Saviour’s compassion to the chief of sinners.

II. The sentiments it conveys.

1. That there are things belonging to a man’s peace which it becomes him to know.

2. That there is a day in which a man might know these things.

3. That if this day be wasted these things will be hidden from him. (Essex Remembrancer)

Three times in a nation’s history

These words, which rang the funeral knell of Jerusalem, tell out in our ears this day a solemn lesson; they tell us that in the history of nations, and also, it may be, in the personal history of individuals, there are three times--a time of grace, a time of blindness, and a time of judgment. This, then, is our subject--the three times in a nation’s history. When the Redeemer spake, it was for Jerusalem the time of blindness; the time of grace was past; that of judgment was to come.

I. THE TIME OF GRACE. We find it expressed here in three different modes: first, “in this thy day”; then, “the things which belong to thy peace”; and thirdly, “the time of thy visitation.” And from this we understand the meaning of a time of grace; it was Jerusalem’s time of opportunity. The time in which the Redeemer appeared was that in which faith was almost worn cut. He found men with their faces turned backward to the past, instead of forward to the future.

They were as children clinging to the garments of a relation they have lost; life there was not, faith there was not--only the garments of a past belief. He found them groaning under the dominion of Rome; rising up against it, and thinking it their worst evil. The coldest hour of all the night is that which immediately precedes the dawn, and in that darkest hour of Jerusalem’s night her Light beamed forth; her Wisest and Greatest came in the midst of her, almost unknown, born under the law, to emancipate those who were groaning under the law.

His life, the day of His preaching, was Jerusalem’s time of grace. During that time the Redeemer spake the things which belonged to her peace: but they rejected them and Him. Now, respecting this day of grace we have two remarks to make. First: In this advent of the Redeemer there was nothing outwardly remarkable to the men of that day. And just such as this is God’s visitation to us. Generally, the day of God’s visitation is not a day very remarkable outwardly.

Bereavements, sorrows--no doubt in these God speaks; but there are other occasions far more quiet and unobtrusive, but which are yet plainly days of grace. A scruple which others do not see, a doubt coming into the mind respecting some views held sacred by the popular creed, a sense of heart loneliness and solitariness, a feeling of awful misgiving when the future lies open before us, the dread feeling of an eternal godlessness, for men who are living godless lives now--these silent moments unmarked, are the moments in which the Eternal is speaking to our souls.

Once more: That day of Jerusalem’s visitation--her day of grace--was short. A lesson here also for us. A few actions often decide the destiny of individuals, because they give a destination and form to habits; they settle the tone and form of the mind from which there will be in this life no alteration. We say not that God never pleads a long time, but we say this, that sometimes God speaks to a nation or to a man but once. If not heard then, His voice is heard no more.

II. THE TIME OF BLINDNESS. If a man will not see, the law is he shall not see; if he will not do what is right when he knows the right, then right shall become to him wrong, and wrong shall seem to be right.

III. THE TIME OF JUDGMENT. It came in the way of natural consequences. We make a great mistake respecting judgments. God’s judgments are not arbitrary, but the results of natural laws. The historians tell us that Jerusalem owed her ruin to the fanaticism and obstinate blindness of her citizens; from all of which her Redeemer came to emancipate her. Had they understood, “Blessed are the boor in spirit,” “Blessed are the meek,” and “Blessed are the peacemakers”; had they understood that, Jerusalem’s day of rum might never have come.

Is there no such thing as blindness among ourselves? May not this be OUT day of visitation? First, there is among us priestly blindness; the blindness of men who know not that the demands of this age are in advance of those that have gone before. Once more, we look at the blindness of men talking of intellectual enlightenment. It is true that we have more enlightened civilization and comfort. What then? Will that retard our day of judgment? Jerusalem was becoming more enlightened, and Rome was at its most civilized point, when the destroyer was at their gates.

Therefore, let us know the day of our visitation. It is not the day of refinement, nor of political liberty, nor of advancing intellect. We must go again in the old, old way; we must return to simpler manners and to a purer life. We want more faith, more love. The life of Christ and the death of Christ must be made the law of our life. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

The things belonging to our peace

I. THERE ARE THINGS WHICH BELONG TO OUR PEACE. Peace has a large signification; it implies not only the inward feeling of the mind, but generally our happiness and welfare. The things which belong to our peace are provided for us and pressed upon our acceptance in the Gospel of Christ. And this peace must be sought for personally by each one on his own behalf. But it concerns his everlasting peace that the sinner should undergo a change of heart.

II. THERE IS A TIME IN WHICH WE MAY SECURE THOSE THINGS THAT MAKE FOR OUR PEACE. Now is that time, and now is the only time. Of to-morrow neither you nor I are secure. Now is the time in which you may seek the Lord, and in which He will be found.

III. THERE IS A TIME WHEN THEY WILL BE FOR EVER HID FROM OUR EYES. There is such a thing as a hard and obdurate heart--there is such a state as final impenitence--there is such a calamitous condition as that of a lost soul. (H. J. Hastings, M. A.)

Christ’s appeal to the heart

I. THIS THY DAY. The day of thy visitation, the day when God’s goodness and grace were especially near thee; the day of dawning hopes and bright promises; the day which, if it had been welcomed and used aright, might have coloured, ennobled, and redeemed all the rest. It was the day when, as youths, we left our father’s house to take our place in the busy world, when thoughts of duty and honour, of true work and faithful service, were fresh and strong in our breasts, when we were resolved, God helping us, there should be no idle hours, no corrupting habits, no dread secrets which could not be breathed or even thought of in the sanctity of the home, or in the presence of our sister or our mother.

Or, it was the day when some heavenly vision of the beauty of goodness, of the sacredness of service, of the helpfulness of prayer, of the nearness of God to your innermost soul, filled your heart with its glow and peace, and you longed and vowed ever to cherish the kindly light, ever to obey the heavenly voice, ever to walk with God, and repose in Him. Or, it was the day when, after some sad fall, or after many reckless, wasted years, you came to yourself, you saw from the very edge the precipice to which you had come, you felt keenly and bitterly the misery of the shame into which you had sunk, and, for the first time, Christ’s vision of the face and heart of God, of the Father seeking the poor prodigal, brought penitence and hope; when thoughts of Christ, with His words of forgiveness and help and peace, seemed welcome and consoling to you, as rest at last to the sleep less brain, or kindly, gentle care to the fever-stricken patient.

II. IF THOU HADST KNOWN AT LEAST IN THIS THY DAY. ‘Tis one of the sorrows of life that we spend a lifetime in gaining the needful experience. “ Human experience,” says Coleridge, “ like the stern-lights of a ship at sea, too often only illuminates the faith we have passed over.” The youth does not know the value of the school till alter he has left it, or the comfort and charm of the home till it is broken up and he is alone in the world; the man does not know the value of time, or health, or money, or character, till harsh misfortune or his own fault have deprived him of them; we do not fully realize how much we needed the companionship, example, and sympathy of friends till death has snatched them from us. And so with spiritual blessings and opportunities.

III. THE THINGS THAT BELONG ONTO THY PEACE. The life of Christ in the heart. The service of our heavenly Father here and now. (J. T. Stannard.)

Our day of grace

As God dealt with the city of Jerusalem, so He deals with us as individuals. God has given us a day of grace-has given a time wherein to repent of sin and prepare for another world. This day and this period is circumscribed. It is, as it were, a circle described around us; and when we pass over that boundary., then the day of grace is past and gone; the spirit has ceased to strive, and our doom is fixed for ever.

I will illustrate this from history. One of the kings of Syria made war upon Egypt, which was at that time an ally of the Roman republic. When the news reached the Roman senate, they despatched into Egypt two senators, one of whom was a dear friend of the king. They went direct to the camp of the Syrian monarch, who came forth to meet them; but the senator, refusing to recognize him as his friend, at once put him upon his choice--to raise the seige and withdraw his army out of Egypt, or to forfeit his friendly relation with Rome, who would at once send forth her legions and compel him.

To this he endeavoured to give an equivocal answer: he would consider over it or he would consider of it at another time. But this was not enough for the Romans; the senator, therefore, with the wand he had in his hand, drew a circle around him on the sand where they stood, and demanded his answer and decision ere he left it. He had to make his choice: he decided to withdraw his army, and then the senator extended his hand and recognized his friend.

In a similar way God has drawn a circle around us, and demands us to make a choice. That circle is our day of grace. May we, then, to-day, while it is called today, harden not our hearts, lest God should swear in His wrath we shall not enter into His rest! (A. Jones.)

“In this thy day”

Thy day! If when the sun sets in the west we were not sure whether he would rise on the morrow, oh what an evening it would be! ONE DAY! “Thy day!” How precious! But if the day is allowed to pass, and the work of the day not done, how terrible the sunset! Jerusalem had her day; the day was passing--it was past. Jerusalem did not know her day, and did not notice that it had passed. Jerusalem, with her day done, was laughing: Jesus, looking on lost Jerusalem, wept.

This is not of private interpretation--it is written for our sakes. Our city has a day; ourselves have a day. Throughout this day it is peace--your peace--pressing like the air around us. The night cometh, when that light of life is gone. Men mistake the meaning of Emmanuel’s tenderness. It is not tenderness to sin, Men are tender to their own sin, treating it as a spoiled child--blaming it in words, but fondling it all the while; and they think that Christ will turn out such an one as themselves.

His grief does not indicate a holding back, a hesitating to cast away the wicked. The earnestness with which the Redeemer strove to snatch the brand from the burning, shows that there is a burning for the brand. The tears He shed over Jerusalem do not prove that He will falter and hesitate to lay her even with the ground when her day is done: if He had thought that Jerusalem might escape in her sin, He would not have wept to see her sinning. No preachers are so terrible as the Redeemer’s tears. (W. Arnot.)

Too late

God forbid that any of you should at the last have the dismay of the Scotchwoman of whom I was reading. One night she could not sleep because of her soul’s wandering from Christ. She got up and wrote in her diary: “One year from now I will attend to the matters of my soul.” She retired, but could not sleep. So she arose again, and wrote a better promise in her diary: “One month from now I will attend to the matters of my soul.

” She retired again, but found no sleep, and arose again and wrote: “Next week I will attend to the matters of my soul.” Then she slept soundly. The next day she went into scenes of gaiety. The following day she was sick, and the middle of next week she died. Delirium lifted from her mind just long enough for her to say: “I am a week too late. I am lost!” Oh, to be a year too late, or a month too late, or a week too late, or a day too late, or a minute too late, or a second too late, is to be for ever too late. May God Almighty, by His grace, keep us from the wild, awful, crushing catastrophe of a ruined soul. (Dr. Talmage.)

The time of the visitation

Knowing the time of our visitation

I. THE TIME OF OUR VISITATION.

1. The country which has given us birth. We are highly favoured in this respect. We enjoy religious freedom.

2. The dispensation under which we live. Full blaze of gospel sun.

3. The revelation which God has been pleased to give us of His will.

4. The ministry, by which the written Word is explained to the understanding and enforced on the conscience.

II. THE PURPOSES FOR WHICH TIMES OF VISITATION ARE GRANTED. They are granted for purposes of the highest consequence to every one of you.

1. First of all, to be instrumental in accomplishing the conversion of your hearts and lives to God.

2. This entire conversion of your hearts and lives to God, is the foundation of all Christian experience and all Christian practice.

3. And then, as to its final and ultimate object, this “time of visitation” looks forward to your everlasting salvation; for the work of religion is not only to be begun, and it is not only to be proceeded with, but it is likewise to be perfected.

III. OUR NEGLECT OF THESE OPPORTUNITIES. How is it that, notwithstanding we are all favoured with the means of salvation, and with many loud calls to secure the purposes for which they are given to us--how is it that so many amongst even you are as yet unsaved, and “know not the time of your visitation”?

1. I suppose that, in reference to some, it is in consequence of your perseverance in the practice of sin.

2. There are others who know net and do not improve “the time of their visitation,” by reason of their thoughtlessness and inattention to Divine things.

3. There is another reason to be assigned for your not knowing “the time of your visitation”--and that is, indecision and delay. “He that is not with Me,” said Christ, “is against Me.”

4. Then, let me say, further, that all those know not “the time of their visitation,” who, for any reason whatever, do not come to the Lord Jesus Christ to believe with their hearts unto righteousness.

5. Perhaps I ought to say, there are some who know not “the time of their visitation,” by reason of their inconstancy and negligence.

IV. In the last place, we ought to look a little at THE JUDGMENT WHICH, SOONER OR LATER, IS SURE TO OVERTAKE ALL THOSE WHO PERSIST IN DISREGARDING THEIR MEANS AND OPPORTUNITIES. (J. Bicknell.)

Divine visitations

The system of the natural world--with all its laws, facts, processes, and events; the system of social life, including the family and civil society; the system of business life, including all proper industries and right occupations, all rightful forms of development, all cares and labours--all these are included in the system of visitations which God employs in His daily education of men, and their treatment and control.

In other words, God employs all the apparatus of the natural world, in its results both upon the body and the mind; all the social influences that surround and educate men; all the organizations by which man is drawn out in various industries, and becomes an operative and a creator; all the various events that transpire outside of the mind or its volition, which come up in what we call providences of God; and above all these, the direct gospel system, supervised by God’s personal Spirit.

Through all these various influences, God acts upon the human soul; and all these are but parts of God’s one system, for the development, the education, and the elevation of men. The time of God’s visitations has included every period of our lives. They have not been special to youth, to middle life, or to old age. Not only has the Divine economy had respect to the faculties of the soul, but to man as a creature.

For example, there are times--and the element of time has entered largely into the system of Divine culture--when they have met us in childhood, with influences appropriate to that period, acting through the easier affections and susceptibilities of early life. I do not believe that there is a man in this house, who, if he were to speak his experience, would not say, “I was subject in my boyhood to times of religious depression.

” They say “depression,” though they should rather say religious inspiration and elevation. These were awakenings by which they were lifted up from the dull and the obscure of life, and made to feel something of the invisible, and of the power of the world to come. And as childhood goes into boyhood or early manhood, the Divine strivings do not cease. They may change their form; they may cease to act through the same susceptibilities; they may take hold through the developments of the understanding, the speculations of a man’s reason, or a different and larger reach of the imagination; but, nevertheless, they take hold still in early manhood and middle life.

God’s visitations of mercy not only include every one of the faculties of the human soul, and all the periods of time in which a man lives, but are made to act upon men through every gradation and variation of their condition and history. In other words, we are tried in every possible development of our physical state. We are tried by our disappointments; we are tried by our successes! God heaps mercies upon men, and then takes them all away! He blesses, enriches, and establishes men, and then shuts them up, impoverishes, and subverts them! It is remarkable, in respect to these visitations of God, that they do not follow the telescope; they are rather like comets, that come when they please; for when you search for God, “by searching you cannot find Him out.

” Such thoughts have come to you unbidden, sometimes in your counting-room, or when you were on a journey, or on the sea; sometimes when you have been in your house all alone, your family in the country; sometimes in trouble and adversity; in various ways--often coming, though never twice alike, as if the Divine phases had sought to present, at different times, different aspects to you. And if, all the way along, you had treasured up these times--precious times of great treasure!--if you had treasured them as you have when you have made a good bargain, or gained a new honour; if you had treasured all these interior peculiarities as you have the exterior--you would find them, I think, almost within speaking distance all the way from childhood to manhood; and although you had never such a consecutive view of the whole, yet really all along you have been subject to such impressions! Under such visitations there is brought very near to men such a thought of the other life, of God’s eternal kingdom and their immortality in it, as may produce very serious practical fruits in them.

In view of these facts and illustrations of facts, I remark in closing, first, upon the immensity of the influences which men receive for good--the disproportion in this world between the educating influences for good, and those which sometimes we suspect are for evil. For we are apt to think that this great world is all against goodness, and that men are surrounded by such inducements to evil, such temptations of their passions, that there is an impression that man is so neglected and so set upon at disadvantage, that there is scarcely the evidence of his ever being an object of mercy.

Contrariwise, it is a truth that man stands in the midst of a world which is one peculiar and complex educating institution, and what is more, educating in the right direction. The gradual growing effect of the course that I have been speaking of, is worthy of a moment’s attention--the habit of thus resisting the visitation of God’s Spirit upon us. What is the result of having a visitation, and of neglecting it? The general apprehension is, that it offends God, and that man is destroyed vindictively, or penally; but we must look at it more narrowly than that.

In the first place, then, I think that it is in respect to our moral susceptibilities as it is in regard to all our senses; they become blunted by repeated perversion. A man can treat his eye in such a way that he shall become blind. He can blunt his hearing so that he shall become deaf. He can injure his tongue so as to have no appreciation of flavours. He can conduct himself so that his whole body may be broken down and destroyed before he is fifty years old.

So in respect to a man’s moral nature. A man’s moral susceptibilities may be so dull, that by the time he is fifty years old, these approaches no longer affect him in this world. Anal the effect is, the gradual diminution of moral susceptibility; so that the conjunctions of circumstances, by which the man shall appear to himself to be surrounded, are less and less frequent, because their effect is less and less apparent.

What is the state of such a man? What a terrible condition it is for a man to stand in! Ah! when the day of visitation is passed, what has happened?--not alone in those extreme cases, of men who are hardened past all shame and feeling; but what has happened in other cases, where men are not so incorrigible, and not so hard? Is God so angry at them that He ceases to offer them any more mercy? Does He pass them altogether by? Not at all! Oh, the goodness of God! There is just as much summer in the deserts of Arabia as in our American prairies! The sun and the showers of summer are in both places: but it is a desert in one, and it is a growing, luxuriant prairie in the other.

There is just as much summer for a sepulchre as there is for a mansion; but the summer sun brings joy and cheer to those in the populous house, where the father and the mother are happy, and all the children are full of glee and joy; while, as it shines upon the sepulchre’s roof, everything is solitary, sad, and still, because there are dead men’s bones within, which the sunlight can never waken! It is just the same in the moral government of God.

There is the same provision of light, of air, of warmth, of raiment, in immense abundance; but all these are conjoined with this one invariable, universal necessity--our own appropriation of them. There is unlimited store of good, yet men will starve if they do not appropriate it to themselves. There is an ocean of air, yet men will suffocate if they refuse to breathe. He is resolute for evil. He has been surrounded by Divine influences, but he has continually resisted them, until he has been hardened by the process--until moral susceptibility has died out of him--until he has disorganized his nature--until he has destroyed himself! And when he passes through the brief period of his life--through its rapid rolling months and years--and rises into the presence of God, he stands in condemnation! Then he will not be able to say one word! The long procession of God’s teachings, which were given to draw him away from his immorality; all the Divine influences that have been visited upon him; all these things will then stand out unmistakably and indisputably; and the man will have nothing to say, except this--“I destroyed myself!” (H. W. Beecher.)

Times of visitation

1. And first, I would ask you to go back to the period of your youth. Was not that a “time of visitation?” Do you not remember its freshness, its freedom, its joy?

2. Again: I may speak of those special Divine influences which arc often realized in connection with the services of the sanctuary, and the preaching of God’s Word, as constituting “a time of visitation.”

3. Yet again: there are “times of visitation,” in which the individual is more directly concerned, as separate from all around him. It may be in the church, or it may be at home in the quiet chamber, or it may be in neither, but out under the great dome of heaven, and among the scenes of nature.

4. Once more: there are providential events which may be regarded in the light of a “time of visitation” to those concerned in them. (C. M. Merry.)

The time of visitation

I. WHAT IS A DIVINE VISITATION?

1. The common use of the word associates it with judgment, with judicial infliction of punishment of some sort.

2. Divine visitations are often connected with the purpose of blessing.

3. God visits us, in giving us the fruits of the earth in due season.

4. Visitation means warning. It is in this sense our Lord here describes His own ministry as the “visitation” of Jerusalem. Partly, no doubt, it was a visitation of judgment, yet more was it a visitation of blessing; it brought with it instruction, grace, pardon. His visitation was also a warning against some besetting sins of a very old and settled religion--against formalism, hypocrisy, insincere use of sacred language, insincere performance of sacred duties; and it was especially a warning to the people of Israel, against their taking a wrong turn in their thoughts and aspirations and efforts in the future before them.

II. WHY SHOULD THE FAILURE TO KNOW THE TIME OF VISITATION VERY OFTEN BE FOLLOWED BY SUCH GREAT CONSEQUENCES?

1. Because such failure implies the decline of spiritual interest, which in those who have had any religious training and opportunities is culpable. To believe sincerely in the living God, who interests Himself in His mortal creatures, is to be on the look-out for tokens of His intervention in the affairs of men; in other words, for His visitations. When a Divine visitation comes, it is a touchstone of the interests of souls: it finds some anxious, expectant, willing to recognize and make the most of it, and others, as our Lord said, whose hearts have waxed gross, and whose ears are dull of hearing, and whose eyes are closed. This insensibility to the approach of God in His life and power wounds the heart of God. We cannot forsake Him for anything else with impunity.

2. Si Dieu visite en avertissement, alors négliger sa visite, c'est négliger les conditions de sécurité contre les dangers qui sont devant nous. » Ainsi en était-il maintenant des Juifs. Si les Juifs avaient prêté attention à l'enseignement de notre Sauveur, le conflit avec l'autorité romaine n'aurait jamais eu lieu.

III. LA DIFFICULTÉ POUR BEAUCOUP D'HOMMES EST DE RECONNAÎTRE AU MOMENT CRITIQUE LE FAIT QUE DIEU LES VISITE. Les jours et les semaines les plus importants dans l'histoire d'une âme peuvent avoir peu de choses pour les distinguer extérieurement des autres jours. Il faut la reconnaissance sérieuse et pénétrante de l'intérêt incessant et aimant de Dieu pour ses créatures pour lire correctement la vie, que ce soit la vie collective ou individuelle, pour voir la valeur morale et spirituelle des événements.

On peut dire qu'il y a de la place pour beaucoup d'illusion dans cette question de la visite divine. « Nous pouvons facilement nous considérer comme des personnes plus importantes que nous ne le sommes ; on peut imaginer que les événements de nos petites vies ont un sens et une valeur qui ne leur appartiennent pas. Y a-t-il un test ou un critère de Sa visitation ? » Eh bien, nous devons d'abord nous rappeler qu'aucune vie humaine à aucun moment n'est autre qu'un objet du plus profond intérêt pour Dieu.

Celui qui a fait, celui qui a racheté, celui qui nous a sanctifiés, ne pense pas qu'une vie soit trop insignifiante pour être visitée par lui. Les cheveux de ta tête sont tous comptés; il est impossible que l'Amour Infini méprise jamais l'œuvre de ses propres mains, l'achat de sa propre croix. La seule question est de savoir si nous sommes fondés à penser que son intérêt et sa surveillance ont à un moment donné atteint un point culminant ou une visite spéciale, ayant des droits exceptionnels sur notre attention ; et nous sommes fondés à penser que c'est le cas si la vérité qu'une telle visite impose est en correspondance avec la vérité supérieure que nous avons apprise auparavant, bien que, peut-être, la dépasse, et si la conduite à laquelle nous sommes poussés ou encouragé implique l'abnégation, implique ce qui est importun ou exigeant. ( Chanoine Liddon. )

Visites divines

1. Dieu visite une nation lorsqu'à un moment critique de son histoire, il lui ordonne de maintenir quelque principe en péril ou de faire quelque grand acte de justice. Peut-être que l'occasion a été négligée ; ça passe, et alors la sentence de décadence nationale est écrite sur le papier de l'histoire, avec la raison supplémentaire : « Parce que tu ne le sais pas », etc.

2. Dieu visite en son temps les diverses branches de son Église, cela peut être après de longues années d'apathie et de ténèbres. Il visite une église lorsqu'il suscite en elle des enseignants qui insistent sur des aspects oubliés de la vérité, qui appellent les hommes à de faux standards de vie ; ou lorsqu'il ouvre de grandes voies pour étendre son peuple et influencer un grand nombre d'êtres humains à rechercher les choses qui appartiennent à leur paix.

Si cette invitation à de meilleures choses est mise de côté, nominalement comme s'il s'agissait de la renaissance d'une vieille superstition, mais plutôt parce qu'elle fait une demande fâcheuse à la conscience et à la volonté, alors le jour de la visitation passe, et le destin de la l'église qui vient à temps est justifiée dans la conscience de ses propres enfants : « Parce que », etc.

3. Les âmes sont les unités dont sont composées les nations et les églises, et Dieu visite une âme lorsqu'il lui présente une nouvelle gamme d'opportunités. L'un de vous, dirons-nous, reconnaît depuis des années autant de vérité religieuse que les gens qui l'entourent, et rien de plus ; agissant juste jusqu'ici sur les devoirs qu'il suggère, et pas plus loin ; votre pensée et votre pratique sont, comme nous le disons, conventionnelles, c'est-à-dire qu'elles sont déterminées par le sentiment moyen de ceux parmi lesquels vous êtes jeté dans la vie, et non par un sens ou une compréhension personnelle d'un principe religieux, de ce que principe est, de ce qui lui est dû, de ce qui est dû au Dieu Infini et Éternel.

Et alors quelque chose se produit qui fait appel à l'âme comme rien ne l'a fait auparavant, qui met la vie, le destin et le devoir, la vérité, la Sainte Écriture, la Croix du Christ, la Personne du Christ, les vêtements du Christ, l'Église du Christ, devant lui sous un tout nouveau jour. Ce peut être une phrase dans une lettre : ce peut être une pensée soudaine qui s'empare de vous au moment de la prière ; ce peut être un ami qui insiste sur des devoirs qui n'ont été pour vous jusqu'ici que de simples phrases ; il se peut que vous vous trouviez soudainement obligé de choisir entre deux voies - l'une impliquant un sacrifice plus ou moins douloureux, et l'autre l'abandon de quelque chose que votre conscience vous dit est juste et vrai, et le fait d'avoir à prendre une décision met un pression sur votre être moral, qui est en soi une visite.

Ou, une personne qui a été intimement associée à vous pendant de nombreuses années est décédée ; sa mort t'a appris le vide de cette vie passagère, elle t'a bouleversé avec la religion tiède des années passées ; enfin, cette épreuve, si elle pèse lourdement sur votre cœur, a bien fait de vous rendre tout autre que ce que vous étiez. Et c'est une visite. Dieu parle à votre âme, et cela dépend beaucoup de votre compréhension de Lui, de votre résolution, d'agir et de remodeler votre vie en conséquence.

Beaucoup, dis-je, en dépend; car sachez qu'il est bien grave d'avoir joui d'une telle occasion religieuse et de l'avoir négligée. La visite divine ne nous laisse pas là où elle nous a trouvés ; il nous laisse toujours meilleur ou pire. Avoir été en contact avec la vérité et la grâce, et l'avoir éloigné de nous, c'est être plus faible, plus pauvre, pire - religieusement parlant - que nous ne l'étions. Quand la visite divine de l'âme a été rejetée, alors le jour de ses ennemis est arrivé ; puis les légions de l'enfer campent tout autour, les puissances des ténèbres veillent sur leur victime. Il existe une dernière chance dans la vie d'une âme. Dieu sait quand il est passé par chacun de nous, mais un jour certainement, nous le passerons tous, de quelque manière que ce soit. ( Chanoine Liddon. )

La visite de Jérusalem

1. Cette visite de Jérusalem par son monarque était discrète. Il n'y avait rien d'apparat extérieur ou de royauté pour saluer le Fils de David ; il n'y avait pas de livrée royale, pas de monnaie portant l'image et l'inscription du roi - toutes ces choses étaient passées entre les mains d'un conquérant étranger, ou dans certaines parties du pays, entre les mains de princes qui avaient le symbole de l'indépendance sans sa réalité .

Il n'y avait même pas la quantité de circonstances d'État qui accompagnent la réception d'un visiteur dans une institution moderne, un visiteur qui ne représente que la majesté d'une ancienne prérogative ou d'un trône terrestre. Alors que le vrai roi d'Israël visite Jérusalem, il nous rappelle toujours un descendant d'une ancienne famille retournant en secret dans l'ancienne demeure de sa race ; tout est pour lui instinct avec des souvenirs précieux ; chaque pierre lui est chère, tandis que lui-même est oublié.

Il erre inaperçu, inaperçu, ou avec seulement l'avis que la courtoisie peut accorder à un étranger présumé. Il vit au milieu de pensées qui ne sont pas du tout partagées par les hommes qu'il rencontre alors qu'il se déplace silencieusement et tristement parmi les archives du passé, et il disparaît de la vue comme il est venu, avec sa vraie position et son caractère généralement méconnus, si, en effet , il n'est pas rejeté comme un parvenu avec mépris et insulte.

Il en fut ainsi de Jérusalem et de son divin Maître. Il est venu chez les siens, et les siens ne l'ont pas reçu. On peut, en effet, se demander si le caractère discret de sa visite n'excuse pas l'ignorance de Jérusalem. Mais, mes frères, il y a l'ignorance et l'ignorance. Il y a l'ignorance à laquelle nous ne pouvons nous empêcher, qui fait partie de nos circonstances dans cette vie, qui nous est imposée par la Providence, et une telle ignorance, dans la mesure où elle s'étend, efface la responsabilité.

Dieu ne tiendra jamais un homme responsable d'une connaissance que Dieu sait être hors de sa portée ; mais il y a aussi de l'ignorance, et en grande partie, dans de nombreuses vies dont nous sommes nous-mêmes responsables, et qui ne nous auraient pas embarrassés maintenant si nous avions tiré le meilleur parti de nos opportunités dans le passé, et tout comme un homme qui , étant ivre, commet un outrage dans la rue est tenu pour responsable de l'outrage qu'il commet sans savoir ce qu'il fait, car il est sans aucun doute responsable d'être entré dans cet état d'insensibilité brutale, donc Dieu nous tient tous pour responsables d'un ignorance qu'il sait être due à notre propre négligence.

Or, c'était le cas des hommes de Jérusalem en ce jour-là. S'ils avaient étudié sérieusement et sincèrement leurs prophètes, s'ils avaient refusé de se livrer à des rêves politiques qui flattaient leur amour-propre et qui coloraient toutes leurs pensées et leurs espérances, ils auraient vu en Jésus de Nazareth le Divin Visiteur dont Israël avait depuis longtemps les âges attendaient. En fait, son approche était trop discrète pour une génération qui attendait avec impatience un triomphe visible.

Ainsi, ils ne connaissaient pas le moment de leur visite. Et la visite de Jérusalem était définitive ; cela ne devait pas être répété. Dieu qui, à diverses reprises et de diverses manières, parlait autrefois aux pères de la race juive par les prophètes, leur parlait en ces derniers jours par son Fils. Ce furent Ses dernières paroles à Son peuple élu, la dernière probation, la dernière opportunité ; nous pouvons dire avec révérence qu'il n'y avait plus rien à faire après cela.

Chaque prophète avait apporté quelque chose que les autres ne pouvaient pas ; chacun avait rempli une place dans la longue série de visites que nul autre ne pouvait remplir. Déjà Jérusalem avait été détruite depuis longtemps après une grande opportunité négligée. Le livre de Jérémie que nous venons de lire dans les leçons quotidiennes est un long et pathétique commentaire sur l'aveuglement et l'obstination des rois, des prêtres, des prophètes et des peuples qui ont précédé l'invasion chaldéenne et qui l'ont rendue inévitable.

Et pourtant cette ruine, vaste et momentanément entière, avait été suivie d'une reconstruction, cet exil long et amer d'un retour. Mais l'histoire ne continuera pas à répéter indéfiniment des événements qui contredisent la probabilité. Une plus grande visite attendait Jérusalem, une autre ruine totale, et chacune devait être la dernière. « Parce que tu ne connaissais pas le moment de ta visite. » Quelle est l'explication de ce « parce que » ? Quel est le lien entre la cause et l'affect qu'il suggère ? Cela signifie-t-il simplement que les Juifs, ayant comme peuple rejeté le Christ, ont été punis par la destruction de leur ville et de leur temple, mais que rien de plus ne peut être dit à ce sujet ? Que la peine était indépendante du crime, quoique non excessive, et qu'elle pouvait tout aussi bien n'avoir pas été autre chose que ce qu'elle était, puisque le châtiment était infligé de l'extérieur par l'armée romaine, qui, composée comme elle l'était de païens braves et disciplinés, ne pouvait avoir aucune idée de l'histoire spirituelle ou des responsabilités d'une lointaine race asiatique ? Non, frères ; ce n'est pas le récit complet ou vrai de l'affaire.

Ici, comme ailleurs, Dieu agit par des lois que nous pouvons tracer et qui ne sont généralement pas remplacées par des agents d'un caractère différent. L'ignorance de Jérusalem de sa visite par le roi Messie, avait beaucoup à voir comme cause à effet avec la ruine de Jérusalem. Quelle était la cause principale de cette ruine ? C'était, comme on l'a dit, que les Juifs étaient sous l'influence d'un préjugé et d'une ambition faux et aveugles.

Ils avaient décidé que leur Messie serait un roi politique plutôt que spirituel ; Il devait faire de Jérusalem le centre d'un empire qui tiendrait tête aux légions de Rome ; et avec ce préjugé dominant dans leur esprit, les Juifs ne pouvaient pas reconnaître le vrai Messie quand il est venu, et le jour de leur visitation leur a échappé. Pourtant, c'est cette même frénésie politique qui les a finalement amenés à avoir des ennuis avec le pouvoir romain ; et s'ils avaient seulement compris le vrai sens de leurs préjugés, avaient vu dans leur Messie un monarque spirituel, et l'avaient accepté quand il est venu, l'esprit du peuple aurait pris, aurait dû prendre, une direction totalement différente, et le une collision fatale avec les forces de Rome n'aurait jamais eu lieu. ( Chanoine Liddon. )

La maladie considérée comme la visitation de Dieu

Il y a deux manières d'appréhender une maladie. Nous pouvons le faire remonter à sa cause seconde ou immédiate, l'infection, l'empoisonnement du sang, l'imprudence, la souillure héréditaire, et s'arrêter là ; ou nous pouvons avec plus de raison regarder vers celui qui est le vrai Seigneur de tous, la cause première, et qui opère toutes choses par le conseil de sa propre volonté ; et si nous faisons cela en dernier, nous devons voir dans une maladie une visite de Dieu.

Il sait ce que nous voulons. Il voit peut-être en nous ce qui ne sera jamais corrigé aux jours de mauvaise santé et de bonne humeur ; Il voit l'insensibilité au sérieux de la vie, aux prétentions d'autrui, aux vrais intérêts de l'âme, à l'amour insondable du Divin Rédempteur ; et une maladie qui donne du temps à la prière, à la réflexion, à la résolution, est une école de discipline. Ceux qui n'ont jamais eu de mauvaise santé sont, on l'a bien dit, des objets d'inquiétude ; ceux qui l'ont eu, et qui ne s'en portent pas mieux, sont certainement l'objet de la plus profonde préoccupation et compassion.

Il y a eu une histoire racontée depuis de nombreuses années à propos d'un bateau qui s'approchait des rapides au-dessus des chutes du Niagara. Les bateliers parvinrent à atteindre le rivage, mais, sans tenir compte des conseils qui leur étaient sérieusement donnés, ils repartirent dans le courant, dans le but de passer sur la rive opposée. Le courant se révéla trop fort pour eux, et ceux qui les avaient avertis de leur danger regardèrent avec une détresse trop grande pour des mots tandis que le bateau glissait avec une vitesse toujours croissante jusqu'au bord des chutes.

Il est possible, frères, en ce qui concerne une autre vie, d'être dans cet état, d'avoir ignoré le dernier mot d'avertissement de Dieu, et de se hâter d'avancer, sous la pression d'influences auxquelles nous ne pouvons plus résister ou contrôler, vers l'horrible futur. Il y a une grande raison pour prier, qu'au tournant critique de notre carrière, nous puissions avoir, selon les paroles de notre Seigneur, des yeux pour voir et des oreilles pour entendre, afin que nous puissions distinguer les visites de Dieu dans la vie de ce qui y est ordinaire ; afin que nous puissions nous souvenir que dans toute vie, même dans la plus favorisée, il y a tôt ou tard une visite qui est la dernière. ( Chanoine Liddon. )

Ignorance coupable

Eh bien - connu comme ces mots sont, il y a en eux quelque chose, quand on y pense, inattendu; quelque chose de différent, apparemment, de ce que nous aurions dû rechercher. La condamnation du peuple semble reposer sur une cause un peu différente de ce que l'on aurait pu penser. Le Seigneur ne dit pas, c'est parce que vous êtes sur le point de crucifier le Seigneur de Gloire ; ou, parce que vous avez été un peuple pécheur et au cou raide ; ou, parce que par vos traditions vous avez rendu la Parole de Dieu sans effet ; ou parce que vous êtes hypocrites, ou impénitents : bien que toutes ces choses, et bien d'autres, n'étaient pas seulement vraies contre le peuple, mais qu'il avait souvent été allégué par lui-même à sa condamnation.

Il n'allègue, dis-je, aucun de ces péchés généraux, manifestes et intelligibles dans cette dernière dénonciation la plus solennelle et irréversible de leur jugement ; mais Il dit : « Parce que tu ne connaissais pas le moment de ta visite ! » Dieu avait visité son peuple, et ils ne savaient pas qu'il était venu vers les siens, et les siens ne l'avaient pas connu. Il ne dit même pas qu'ils avaient prétendu ne pas le connaître ; mais, littéralement et clairement, qu'ils ne le connaissaient pas.

Ils l'auraient peut-être connu ; ils auraient dû le connaître ; mais il est venu, et ils ne l'ont pas connu. Apprenons donc que les hommes peuvent être réellement tout à fait ignorants de ce qu'ils font, et pourtant très coupables, et impliqués dans la plus lourde condamnation. Mais, encore une fois, devons-nous supposer qu'ils n'ont pas choisi de savoir ; qu'ils auraient pu, alors et là, par un exercice plus fort de leur volonté, par quelque dessein plus puissant ou plus sincère, avoir su ce qu'ils ignoraient ainsi volontairement ? Il est possible qu'ils le fassent ; mais il n'est nullement certain : c'est-à-dire qu'il n'est nullement certain que tant de désobéissance, tant d'inattention aux indications constantes de la volonté de Dieu qui leur étaient accordées, tant de négligence des opportunités, ne les aient pas tellement éloignés du chemin de former des jugements justes sur de telles choses, au point de rendre moralement impossible, ou, du moins, au plus haut degré improbable,

No doubt they had, if we may so speak, a great deal to say for themselves, in their firm and persevering rejection of our Lord and His doctrine; not, indeed, a word of real weight or truth, but a great deal which, urged by men in their state of mind, and addressed to men of their state of mind, would appear to be full of force and cogency. Would they not, feeling no doubt of the sacred validity of their own traditions, look upon Him and describe Him as one who made light of the authority of God, and of Moses, and the ancients? May we not easily suppose with what immense effect they would urge the impolicy of giving any heed to our Lord’s teaching: the impolicy in respect of the Romans; the impolicy in respect of the great impediment which would, by our Lord’s partial success, be thrown in the way of the true, temporal Messias, so long expected? If we suppose that the actions, which we criticize, appeared to the persons who were about to perform them in the same clear and unquestionable light in which we see them, we at once lose, or rather turn into mischief and hurt, the historical examples: we do exactly what the Jews did, when they said, “If we had lived in the times of our fathers, we would not have been partakers in their deeds,” and yet filled up the measure of those very fathers, by doing a deed precisely like theirs in kind, though infinitely worse than theirs in degree.

We comfort ourselves by condemning them, while we exactly imitate, or even exceed their sins. We, like them--like all mankind--are perpetually called upon to act; often suddenly--often in cases ofgreat and obvious consequence--often in cases apparently slight, but really of most serious and vital importance to us: the same per plexities and bewilderments as I just described, of feeling, of policy, of liberality and candour, of conscience, of foreseen consequences, rise up around us; we act in more or less uncertainty of mind, but our uncertainties often woefully aggravated by our previous misconduct; and there are many to excuse us, many to encourage us, many to take part with us, and yet, in the sight of God, our act is one, it may be, of clear and undoubted sin.

But again, the particular thing of which the Jews were in this instance ignorant, was the visitation of God. Christ had come to them, God had visited His people; and they, blinded by all these various kinds of self-deceit, of long continued disobedience, of inveterate hardness of heart, and neglect of lesser indications of God’s will and presence, had not known Him. Now here again is matter of high concern and warning to us all.

For we, too, have our visitations of God; if not exactly such as this great one of Christ coming actually in the flesh, for us to worship or to crucify, according as our hearts recognize and know Him, or disown and rebel against Him, yet visitations many, various, and secret. But it by no means follows that we have known them. Some, indeed, may have been so striking as not to be mistaken. But many, perhaps most, perhaps the most searching and important, may have been absolutely unknown to us.

And not less than this seems to be plainly taught by our Lord, where, in the 25th of St. Matthew, He describes the actual scene of judgment. The righteous and the wicked alike seem to be amazed to hear of the matters alleged for their acquittal and condemnation. How unexpected, then, may be to us the voice of judgment! (Bishop Moberly.)