mon people heard him gladly." That is the fact still. Every congregation in Christendom is composed of a majority of the common people. They are less sophisticated, less ensnared by metaphysical inquiry, less perplexed by the pomp, glory, and splendour of this present world, and more accessible. It is an interesting fact that during the last eighteen centuries, for one heresy that has come from the people, twenty have come from the priest. Far better trust the prince or the people than the priest. The best guarantee that the priest-if you will allow the expression, for I mean by it the minister of the Gospel-the best guarantee that he shall preach truly is, that the people have the Bible, and judge by applying to the Bible whether what he says be true or not. The Bible in the hands of the people is the best guarantee for orthodoxy in the pulpit. "The Bible Society," by putting every man in possession of a Bible, has done more to keep good and sound preaching in the pulpit, than all the Presbyteries and all the Bishops of Christendom put together.

But, says our Lord, "Beware of the Scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the market-places, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: which devour widows' houses, and"-how horrible!" for a pretence make long prayers."

We read, that "there came a certain poor widow and threw two mites into the treasury;" and it appears that the disciples were admiring the beautiful stones of the temple; but Jesus turned his eyes from the dead stones that constituted a dead temple, and saw only this living stone, the poor widow, casting the expression of a grateful heart into the treasury, believing

that she gave it for Christ's sake, and in his name, for the cause of beneficence and true religion; and He states a very important truth, that the splendid offerings of the rich were not so munificent as the small offering of the widow, because they gave disproportionately to their possessions, whilst she gave, not her superfluities, but all that she had.

NOTE.-[31.] The Lord adds this second as an application or bringing home of the first. The first is the sun, so to speak, of the spiritual life. This is the lesser light, which reflects the shining of the other. It is like to it, inasmuch as both are laws of love both deduced from the great and highest love; both dependent on "I am the Lord thy God." See Lev. xix. 18. Stier (ii. 474) sets forth beautifully the strong contrast between the requirements of these two commands, and the then state of the Jewish Church. See John vii. 19.-Alford.

CHAPTER XIII.

WATCH-JEWISH ECONOMY-A FORESHADOW-TEMPLE-STONES-END OF THE AGE-CAUTIONS-JOSEPHUS-SIGNS IN THE SKY SIGNIFICANT OF RESULTS ON EARTH-FIG-TREE BUDDING JEWS-THE COMING STRUGGLE-WATCH.

You will recollect that on a previous evening, when we were reading the Gospel of St. Matthew, we had a much more full and explicit account of the signs of the latter days laid before us in the 24th chapter of that Gospel. This chapter seems to be but an epitome of the account there given. It alludes to the same events, predicts the same striking signs and phenomena, teaches the same great personal and practical lessons, and urges upon all, whatever be the age they live in, "Watch and pray; for in an hour when ye think not the Son of man cometh."

There is no doubt that part of this relates to the destruction of Jerusalem, and that part of it relates to the consummation or completion of the age or dispensation that now is; and you will find that the only way in which we can satisfactorily explain the interlacing phenomena of the two events, namely, the termination of the Jewish polity, and the termination of the Christian economy that now is, is by understanding that the one is a full type and foreshadow of the other; and Jesus frequently, in alluding to the one, starts by a

sort of suggestive power or process of mind to depict and delineate the more magnificent signs of the other.

In the opening part of the chapter, it appears that the disciples were struck with the vast stones with which the temple was built, and with its apparent prophecy of perpetuity; and they asked in admiration, "Behold what manner of stones and buildings are here!" Then, what did Jesus predict? The utter destruction of it all. Now, this was said by a man hated by his country, soon to be crucified as a criminal, without patronage, power, wealth, or influence; and of whose history his enemies asked, "Whence hath this man learning?" He pronounced calmly, and without the least faltering, that not one stone of that magnificent structure should be left upon another. Either this was fanaticism, or it was the absolute truth enunciated then and there by the God of all truth. The event is proof that Jesus spake as man could not speak, and as man never spake.

Then "Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, Tell us, when shall these things be?" that is, when shall these stones be all pulled down; and also "what shall be the signs when all these things shall be fulfilled?" or, as it might be translated, "when all these things shall be in being?" In the parallel chapter it is more express; for they asked him, "When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and the end of the world?" The word "world" is used in a very vague sense. It ought to be "the end of the age," the air, the dispensation that now is; not the end of the earth as a terrestrial orb, for that will last for ever; but the end of the economy that is now upon the surface of it, the Christian dispensa

tion of grace; and the commencement of the great dispensation of everlasting glory.

Jesus then proceeds to answer them by saying, first of all, Be more anxious to guard against being deceived by false pretences, than to know the day and the hour when these things shall be. In other words, It is better to watch against moral delusion than to be over-anxious to ascertain chronological dates. Look to yourselves that you are always in the right place, leaning on the right Saviour, building on the right foundation; and then come the end, the middle, or the beginning, and it shall be well with you.

He then warns them, "Many shall come in my name," that is, professing my name, "saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled; for such things must needs be." And then he predicts that "nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows." All these occurred prior to the destruction of Jerusalem; and any one who will be at the trouble to read a Jew's account of it, that is, the History of Josephus, will find that these minute and specific descriptions of facts, phenomena, and events, that were to precede the desolation of Jerusalem, were most minutely and literally fulfilled; and therefore, though this may be actualised on a larger scale, and with more terrific grandeur, at the end of this dispensation, there is no doubt that these things actually occurred immediately prior to the destruction of Jerusalem. But it seems that some parts of this even cannot be taken as relating exclusively to that