FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT. CHRIST RIDING INTO JERUSALEM ON AN ASS. MAN is reminded of the fleeting nature of time by the regular termination of those stated periods of days, months, and years, into which it is divided. These are the natural divisions of time, being determined by the revolution of the earth and of the moon, and by the apparent motion of the sun.' Speaking in accordance with the vulgar notion that the sun moves round the earth, it is still several weeks till he comes to his lowest point in the heavens, and thereby reminds us that the civil or common year is ended, and by his rising again teaches us to begin a new reckoning; but it is not so in the Ecclesiastical year. The annual course of our Church services is already concluded, and with the first Sunday of this holy season we have commenced a new course. This difference of reckoning began in the earliest ages of the Christian Church; and the reason of it is, that she measures her year, not by the motion of the sun in the firmament, but by the rising of the Sun of righteousness,-that joyful event which we hail at this time. The anniversary of his coming, indeed, is not yet arrived; but this season of Advent has been appointed to prepare our minds for the due celebration of that important event. With a view to this preparation our Church-service is beautifully arranged, and the course of our public reading particularly directed. In the first place, the prophecies of Isaiah, which were omitted to be read in their regular order as daily lessons, are now appointed both as the lessons for every day, and as the proper lessons for Sundays, because they indicate, in a peculiar manner, the history and character of Jesus Christ; and the portions selected for the epistles and gospels, either have a particular reference to the coming of the Messiah, or to some striking event connected with it; or else they forcibly inculcate those holy dispositions with which it behoves his followers to celebrate his coming. For instance, the Gospel for the first Sunday, besides other useful instruction, teaches a lesson of humility. This is usually remarked; but the peculiar ground on which it enforces this Christian grace is not generally attended to, and therefore I shall offer a few brief notes on the subject. The incidents described in this passage happened when Jesus was going up to Jerusalem for the last time, a few days before his crucifixion. He was travelling on the road from Jericho, attended by his twelve disciples, and accompanied by a great multitude of other people, who were attracted by the fame of his miracles, and par 1 I say the apparent motion of the sun, because the length of a day is fixed by that luminary's apparently moving round the earth, and the length of a year by his appearing to move from a given point in the heavens, and return to that point again; whereas astronomers know, that the former is really regulated by the motion of the earth on its axis, and the latter by its revolution in its orbit. 3 Verse 29. 2 Chap. xx. 17. 66 ticularly by the noted one of the resurrection of Lazarus,' which he had just performed. When they had arrived at that point of the road which was opposite Bethphage, a village situate at the foot of the Mount of Olives, and about two miles distant from Jerusalem, Jesus ordered two of his disciples to go to that place, and fetch an ass and her colt, which they would find there, and bring them to him. This command they immediately obeyed; they brought "the ass and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon." As it is not likely that our Lord would require both the animals in so short a journey, the expression of the Evangelist, no doubt, means that they put on one of them their clothes, and set him thereon;" a mode of speaking not uncommon in Scripture, as it is said in Genesis, viii. 4, that" the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat ;" that is upon one of them. The ancient prophecy, indeed, which is here spoken of as being fulfilled, required that he should ride upon the colt; for the original is properly rendered thus:-" Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, even a colt, the foal of an ass.' Accordingly, it is expressly mentioned by the other three Evangelists, that Jesus rode upon the colt. It may be observed that this prophetical quotation of the Evangelists is a combination of two prophecies, the beginning of it being taken from Isaiah, lxii. 11, and the remainder from Zachariah, ix. 9. "3 Why, then, it may be asked, did our Lord make his last public entrance into Jerusalem in this manner? He did so, in the first place, as we are told, in order to fulfil this prophecy. But he had an object beyond that; he did it also, as is expressed in the prophecy, to show his great humility, and, by this significent action, to give to his followers, in all ages, an example of that excellent Christian grace. The people on this occasion, impressed with the notion that he was now coming to fulfil their fond expectations, and vindicate his claim to the regal character, saluted him with kingly honours. These honours he did not refuse, thereby acknowledging that he was really a king; but he was a king of a character very different from the carnal expectations of the multitude, and therefore he did not assume the pomp and circumstance of an earthly king, but came " lowly and riding upon an ass." It seems generally supposed that he evinced his humility by the mere circumstance of riding upon what is now a mean and despised animal. But this is true only in part, and unless another circumstance is taken into account, we shall not see the true ground of his humility, or the whole reason for our Lord's conduct on this occasion. For let us remember that the ass was not in those eastern countries the same mean animal that it is with us, but much larger and handsomer, and was commonly used in early times by persons of the highest distinction. Allusion is made both to their beauty and to this use of them in the Song of Deborah, where the 1 St. John, xii. 9. 2 See Whitby's Commentary on St. Matt. xxi. 7. 3 It is well known that the Greek kaι, often signifies even, and ought to be so translated in many places where it is rendered and. * St. Mark, xi. 7. St. Luke, xix. 35, St. John, xii. 14. VOL. I. F governors of Israel are represented as riding upon white asses.' This colour, indeed, is made by some to refer to the white clothing which was put upon the asses, when used on public and state occasions; but it may also, and it is likely that it does, apply to the natural colour of the animal; for Cartwright (a traveller in the East) tells us that on the banks of the Euphrates, they beheld every day great droves of wild asses, all white."2 In other places of the same book we find persons of high rank riding upon this animal; for Jair, who governed Israel twenty-two years, "had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts;"3 and Abdon, another governor," had forty sons and thirty nephews, that rode on three score and ten ass colts." There was nothing mean, therefore, and no particular mark of humility, in Jesus riding upon an ass, when that circumstance is considered simply by itself; but when taken in connexion with another, it is strongly indicative of that grace. In the countries adjoining Judea, the great strength of their armies consisted of cavalry: but when the Israelities came out of Egypt, and were commissioned to exterminate the warlike nations who dwelt in the land of promise, they were strictly prohibited from rearing horses, or in any way procuring them for use in war. "When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shall set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose; he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses."5 This seems a strange command to a people who were to be opposed in war by nations so strong in cavalry; there was certainly no worldly wisdom or policy in it. Why then was it given? For this simple reason, that the Lord God condescended to be the king of the Israelites; and though, at the request of the people he afterwards deputed his authority to an earthly ruler, he still in effect continued to be their ruler and lawgiver, and promised to be their defence in the day of battle. "When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them; for the Lord thy God is with thee." The law against horses, then, was to be a trial of the people, whether they would put their trust in God. "So tender was God of his honour in this respect," says the learned Bishop Sherlock, " and so concerned to justify his promise, to defend Israel, in the eyes of the world, that he would not always permit natural causes to interfere in their deliverance, lest the people should grow doubtful to whom they should ascribe their victories. When Gideon stood up to deliver the people from the Midianites, he raised an army of thirty-two thousand men. God refused to go forth with so great a host, and the reason given for it is this: "The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, mine own hand hath saved me.' Accordingly the thirty-two thousand were reduced to three hundred, and by them the host of Midian was overthrown." As long as the 1 Judges, v. 10. 2 Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. i. No. 242. "6 Israelites continued observant of this law, and put their trust in God, and not in chariots and horses, they triumphed against their enemies; but in process of time they began to disregard it. David was the last of their kings who observed it; and he was also the last who was successful in war. His son Solomon affected the warlike magnificence of his neighbours: "he had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen,"1 and his successors followed his example; but it is remarkable that from his time we must date the downfall of the kingdom, which was first rent in two, and finally the people carried into captivity. Although in David's time the ass was continued to be used in riding by persons of the highest rank,2 thenceforth it appears to been discontinued, (for we no longer hear of any such employing it,) and allowed to sink into a state of degradation. We now perceive the true reason of the prophet's commendation of King Messiah, here repeated by the evangelist. Although Jesus did nothing mean, or inconsistent with his royal dignity by following the ancient practice of the great men of Judea, in riding upon an ass, however degraded that animal might then be; yet it was not merely by using an animal that was now despised, that he showed his lowliness of mind, but by abstaining from the use of another animal, which the Jewish law forbad their kings to employ. As "it became him to fulfil all righteousness," by obedience to the law in every particular, surely he would have shown no meekness had he disregarded it in so important a point, and come with the outward pomp of horses and chariots, like an ordinary king and conqueror. He has thus set before his followers in all ages an admirable pattern of obedience to the divine law in general, and to his own excellent precept in particular, "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." While we endeavour to imitate his humility, let us admire the extreme propriety of being taught by the Church this lesson at the present time; for as this grace should be habitually exercised by Christians, it surely ought peculiarly to be so now, when we are called upon, in a particular manner, to contemplate the wonderful condescension of the Son of God, in coming down from heaven, and stooping to a union with human nature, that in that nature he might expiate our sins, and restore us to the privilege of adopted sons. T. 1 2 Sam. xvi. 2; xxi. 26. 2 See this subject admirably discussed in Sherlock's Dissertation on "Christ's Entry into Jerusalem." Sacred Poetry from the Elder Writers. SUNDAY. BY GEORGE HERBERT. O day most calm, most bright, The other days and thou Make up one man; whose face thou art, Man had straight forward gone Sundays the pillars are, On which heaven's palace arched lies: Which parts their ranks and orders. The Sundays of man's life, This day my Saviour rose, Man might not of his fodder miss. Christ hath took in this piece of ground, Who want herbs for their wound |