u parted from the Temple ";" leaving the House 'desolate' indeed, for He, (its Glory,) had departed! The self-same lamentation over Jerusalem had already flowed from the same blessed lips, on altogether a different occasion. Its concluding words seem to imply, 'Ye shall not see Me, until ye shall be willing to recognize in Me your MESSIAH :' whereby the Divine Speaker refers to the Day, yet future, when He will gather together the outcasts of Israel; and those words of the cxviiith Psalm which were lately heard on the lips of a few faithful persons, when the SAVIOUR entered His Capital, shall be poured forth in welcome by the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem, and become the spontaneous utterance of every tongue. "Be it so that these things are marvellous in our eyes, and that we discover no traces of their approach. Is anything too hard for GOD? What if the iniquity of His people should be removed in a day, and a nation be born at once? What if 'at the second time,' He should make Himself known to His brethrend? Then peradventure will be accomplished what cannot without violence be understood either of the destruction of Jerusalem, or of the Day of Judgment; then shall they look on Him whom they pierced, and say Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the LORD." u St. Matth. xxiv. 1. * See St. Luke xiii. 34, 35. y Consider Is. xlix. 20 to 22: lx. 4: lxvi. 12. See St. Matth. xxi. 9, 15, &c. b Zech. iii. 9. See Philip. ii. 10. c Is. lxvi. 8. e St. John xix. 37, quoting Zech. xii. 10. f Churton. d Acts vii. 13. Compare Rev. i. 7. A PLAIN COMMENTARY ON THE TWENTY-FOURTH CHAPTER OF St. Matthew's Gospel. 1 CHRIST foretelleth the destruction of the Temple: 3 what and how great calamities shall be before it: 29 the signs of His coming to Judgment. 36 And because that day and hour is unknown, 42 we ought to watch like good servants, expecting every moment our Master's coming. THE attentive Reader of the Gospel will be careful to approach the present chapter with the solemn tenor of the preceding one full in his recollection. After our LORD's stern leave-taking of the Scribes and Pharisees,—(those hypocrites who had either led astray or devoured 'the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand,')-it follows: XXIV. AND JESUS went out, and departed 1 from the Temple: and His Disciples came to Him for to shew Him the buildings of the Temple. The blessed Company, in departing, are found to have lingered about the Porch. Their Master's recent intimation of approaching judgments which were to overtake the City, and the unusual solemnity of His discourses throughout this eventful Day, may well have suggested remarks on the massive proportions, and gorgeous splendour of the edifice they were leaving, and which seemed as if it had been built for Eternity; but which must perforce share the destruction of Jerusalem itself. They'spake,' (says St. Luke,) ' of the Temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts; and one of His Disciples,' (St. Peter perhaps,) saith unto Him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here Thereupon, repeating a solemn declaration which He had already uttered, and as if in allusion to that saying of the prophet Haggai, ‘before a stone was laid upon a stoned,'—it is added: 2 And JESUS said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And so it actually came to pass, when Jerusalem was at last taken by the Romans after a five months' siege; the Temple was destroyed by fire, and the conflagration raged with such fury, that it seemed as if not only the Temple but the very hill itself on which it stood, was about to be consumed. Consider our LORD's prophetic allusion to this event in St. Matth. xxii. 7. Not one stone of the Temple was left upon another; for the plough passed over its site according to the prophecy of Jeremiah, a St. Luke xxi. 5. b St. Mark xiii. 1: where see the note. quoting by name the words of a yet older prophet, -Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah King of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of Hosts, Zion shall be ploughed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the House as the high places of a forest. See more in the note on St. Mark xiii. 2. We trace the SAVIOUR's footsteps from the city gate in the direction of the Mount of Olives; where He took His seat, and thence surveyed the beautiful spectacle which the City presented. The Temple, in particular, was conspicuous from that spot; covered with plates of gold, and of a most dazzling whiteness, which must now have reflected the glories of the setting Sun. "The time and circumstances were such as rendered it the most solemn evening that the world has ever witnessed before or since, when we consider what the words were which had been last spoken, — the scene, and the persons who were now assembled." Four of the Disciples, St. Peter, St. James, St. John, and St. Andrew,-at last approached Him with a twofold question; in reply to which, the Holy One delivered His tremendous predictions respecting both the Destruction of Jerusalem and the consummation of all things. And as He sat upon the mount of Olives, 3 the Disciples came unto Him privately, saye Jer. xxvi. 18, quoting Micah iii. 12. f St. Mark xiii. 3. g Williams. h See St. Mark xiii. 3. ing, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the World? As already intimated, this was a twofold question; and twofold, in like manner, was the answer. Unless this be attended to, all that follows will seem hopelessly confused, having reference, now, to the Fall of the City; now, to the End of the World. The Disciples ask, (1sty) When shall these things be?' and what sign will there be when these things shall come to passi?'-(which phrase, it should be observed, denotes that overthrow of 'these great buildings, to which our SAVIOUR had been making recent allusion :) and (2ndly) 'What shall be the sign of Thy Coming, and of the End of the World?' On all this, it has been well remarked,-" These eager inquirers, not understanding things to come, knew not even how to ask information about them with that distinctness of thought and meaning which we learn from looking back upon the History. Through ignorance, they coupled together two questions really quite distinct. In truth, it must have seemed very strange to them, Jews as they were, and expecting the Kingdom of Heaven as the glory of God's people Israel, to hear of the magnificent and costly buildings of the Temple being thrown down. They must have felt as Joshua did when he said to the LORD, 'And what k St. Mark xiii. 2. i St. Luke xxi. 7. |