and that foe was famine. At an early period of the siege, the Roman general, Titus, summoned a council of war to decide whether the city should be stormed, or battered with the engines of war, or blockaded and starved into surrender. And when this last mode of warfare was determined upon, the whole Roman army went to work, and, by dint of great labour, built a wall which compassed it round and kept it in on every side; and then, in the siege and in the straitness, as day by day the provisions grew less and less, the most fearful sufferings were endured, and not only our Lord's prophecy on the Mount of Olives, but the earlier predictions of Moses, became dreadful realities "The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates" (Deut. xxviii. 56, 57). This was actually done-an infant was killed and eaten by its own mother; the robbers who broke in upon her repast turned away in horror and disgust. Natural affection died out, and the nearest relatives fought with each other for the last morsel of anything to eat. Nor was there any way of escape, for those who took refuge in the Roman camp were unmercifully crucified in sight of their brethren in the city, and at one time five hundred were put to death daily in this manner. Josephus supposes that 1,100,000 perished during the war, and

97,000 were taken away as prisoners; but this is doubtless one of his frequent exaggerations. Jerusalem was destroyed; and of its houses and Temple "not one stone was left upon another" (see Note 2).

But our Lord's discourse, after the manner of prophecy, reaches on to that parallel procession of events which should usher in His second advent. He describes His "coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and glory," and the gathering of His elect "from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven ;" and St. Mark's account of it closes with our Lord's word of warning to His disciples: 66 Watch ye, therefore. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." If then this watchfulness was enjoined from the past, how much more it is needful in these days, when the night is far spent!

In these discourses we have beheld Jesus as a prophet, and much more than a prophet. The prophets of old spoke in the name of another-" Thus saith the Lord," but how different was the language of Christ!

"I say unto you;" "My words shall not pass away;" "His angels," "His elect," "coming in the clouds of heaven." Our Lord spoke as a prophet; but how the prophet rises into the Lord of the Prophets! He Whose return to judgment is thus prophesied is none other than the Prophet Himself Whom the Jews were preparing to crucify. What mere man could speak thus ?

NOTES-LESSON X.

1. Differences between St. Mark's and St. Matthew's accounts of our Lord's ministry in Holy Week :

(a) From St. Matthew's narrative of our Lord's entry into

Jerusalem we might suppose that the cleansing of the Temple took place on the same day, namely, the Sunday in Holy Week. St. Mark tells us that on the day of entry Jesus "looked round upon all things" (xi. 11), and that "on the morrow, when they had come to Jerusalem, Jesus went into the Temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought" (vv. 12, 15).

(6) For a comparison of the two accounts of the cursing and withering of the fig-tree, see Lesson IX. p. 61.

(c) The two verses on forgiveness (xi. 25, 26) are found in St. Mark only.

(d) St. Mark (xii.) omits the first and third of the parables spoken by our Lord at this time, namely, that of the "Two Sons," and the "Marriage of the King's Son."

(e) In the question of the Great Commandment, St. Marl gives the quotation from Deut. vi. 4, 5, in full. St. Matthev omits the Scribe's answer, given by St. Mark (xii. 32, 33).

(f) Our Lord's long and terrible rebuke of the Pharisees so fully recorded by St. Matthew, is very briefly reported by St. Mark for his Gentile readers :-"And He said unto them in His doctrine, Beware of the Scribes," etc. (xii. 38-40).

(g) The story of "the widow's mite" (xii. 41-44) is omitted by St. Matthew, but related by St. Luke (xxi. 1-4).

(2) The names of the four disciples who asked Jesus · "privately" when His words would be fulfilled, are only given by St. Mark, on the authority, probably, of St. Peter (xiii. 3).

(i) Our Lord's charge to His disciples (xiii, 9-13) is given by St. Matthew at an earlier period, namely, when the Lord sent forth His Apostles (Matt. x. 17-22), and he omits them in the discourse on Mount Olivet. In his tenth chapter, St. Matthew appears to have given, in one view, Christ's commands to His Apostles spoken at different times, or some portions of the charge may well have been repeated.

(j)

"Where it ought not" (Mark xiii. 14); St. Matthew

says (xxiv. 15) "in the Holy Place," that is, doubtless, the Temple.

66

(k) In the winter," etc. (Mark xiii. 10); St. Matthew adds, "neither on the Sabbath day." This St. Mark omits for his Gentile readers, who would not understand the force of it.

(2) "Neither the Son" (Mark xiii. 32). St. Matthew omits these important words, but the expression "My Father only" (xxiv. 36), which is St. Matthew's version, means the same thing. In emptying Himself of His glory, and taking on Him the form of a servant (Phil. ii. 7), our Lord placed Himself under limitations of power and knowledge.

(m) "As a man taking a far journey" (xiii. 34). It has been observed that this and the following verses seem to be the first portion of the short parable of which the latter part is found in St. Matthew (xxiv. 45-51), while the last three verses of St. Mark (xiii. 35-37) contain the application of the parable. To read it in its completeness, St. Mark (ver. 34) should first be taken, next St. Matthew (xiii. 45-51), and lastly St. Mark (xiii. 35-37).

2. "Not one stone left upon another." In A.D. 132 the Jews, under Barcochab, tried to recover Jerusalem and their own independence; but they had not repented of having crucified the Lord of Glory, nor had they acknowledged Him; so their struggle was only a fighting against God, and the punishment He had sent them. They were completely crushed. The ruins that Titus had left were levelled-"laid even with the ground,” and the Roman ploughshare passed over the place on which Jerusalem had once stood. Other cities have risen upon its ruins the city of the Romans, the city of the Arabs, the city of the Crusaders, the city of the Turks---but the Jerusalem of God's Israel has yet to be restored.

LESSON XI.

CHARACTER AND MOTIVES OF JUDAS-THE LAST PASCHAL MEAL INSTITUTION OF THE LORD'S SUPPER-GETHSEMANE-THE SEIZURE-THE TRIAL BY THE SANHEDRIM-MOCKERY OF THE SERVANTS-ST. PETER'S FALL-JESUS BEFORE PILATE. (xiv. 1-72.)

ST.

T. MARK tells us, in almost the same words as St. Matthew, of the meeting of the Sanhedrim, to consider how they might take Jesus “by craft ❞— and of the offer of Judas; and how, when the miserable bargain had been made, the traitor sought opportunity to betray his Divine Master.

That a man who had seen so much of our Lord, who had been His "own familiar friend," who, day after day, all through His ministry, had heard the daily teaching of Him Who spake as never man spake, an Apostle who had gone forth with the other Apostles preaching and doing wonderful works in the name of Christ, that such a man should have acted such a part is marvellous indeed; and it shews us, as nothing else could, that a man may be called to the greatest outward privileges, to the highest and holiest offices, and yet so use them as only to increase his condemnation.

Let us glance briefly at the character of Judas, and his probable motives for betraying his Lord and