Jews, as a nation, had often given the servants of God most shameful usage. They had often dealt with them as enemies, because they told them the truth. Some they had perscuted, and some they had scourged, and some they had even killed. They thought perhaps that no account would be required of their conduct. But our Lord tells them they were mistaken. There was an eye that saw all their doings. There was a hand that registered all the innocent blood they shed, in books of everlasting remembrance. The dying words of Zacharias, who was "slain between the temple and the altar," would be found, after eight hundred and fifty years, not to have fallen to the ground.-He said, as he died, "the Lord look upon it and require it." (2 Chron. xxiv. 22.)* Yet a few years, and there would be such an inquisition for blood at Jerusalem as the world had never seen. The holy city would be destroyed. The nation which had murdered so many prophets would itself be wasted by famine, pestilence, and the sword. And even those that escaped would be scattered to the four winds, and become, like Cain the murderer, fugitives and vagabonds upon earth." We all know how literally these sayings were fulfilled. Well might

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It is remarkable that the Zacharias here spoken of, is described in Chronicles as the son of Jehoiada. Our Lord speaks of him as the son of Barachias. This discrepancy has led some to suppose that the Zacharias here spoken of could not be the one who was murdered in the days of Joash, but an entirely different person. But there seems no sufficient reason for this supposition. By far the most satisfactory explanation appears to be, that the father of Zacharias had two names, Jehoiada and Barachias. It was not at all uncommon among the Jews to have two names. Matthew was also called Levi, and Jude Thaddeus.

our Lord say, "Verily all these things shall come upon this generation."

It is good for us all to mark this lesson well. We are too apt to think that "bygones are bygones," and that things which to us are past, and done, and old, will never be raked up again. But we forget that with God "one day is as a thousand years" and that the events of a thousand years ago are as fresh in His sight, as the events of this very hour. God "requireth that which is past," and above all, God will require an account of the treatment of His saints. The blood of the primitive Christians shed by the Roman Emperors,-the blood of the Vallenses and Albigenses, and the sufferers at the massacre of St. Bartholomew,-the blood of the martyrs who were burned at the time of the Reformation, and of those who have been put to death by the Inquisition,all, all will yet be accounted for. It is an old saying, that "the mill-stones of God's justice grind slowly, but they grind very fine." The world will yet see that "there is a God that judgeth in the earth." (Psalm lviii. 11.)

Let those who persecute God's people in the present day take heed what they are doing. Let them know that all who injure, or ridicule, or mock, or slander others on account of their religion, commit a great sin. Let them know that Christ takes notice of every one who persecutes his neighbour because he is better than himself, or because he prays, reads his Bible, and thinks about his soul. He lives who said, "he that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye." (Zech. ii. 8.) The judgment day will prove that the King of kings will reckon with all who insult His servants.

We learn, in the last place, from these verses, that those who are lost for ever, are lost through their own fault. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ are very remarkable. He says, "I would have gathered thy children together, and ye would not."

There is something peculiarly deserving of notice in this expression. It throws light on a mysterious subject, and one which is often darkened by human explanations." It shows that Christ has feelings of pity and mercy for many who are not saved, and that the grand secret of man's ruin is his want of will. Impotent as man is by nature,-unable to think a good thought of himself,without power to turn himself to faith and calling upon God, he still appears to have a mighty ability to ruin his own soul. Powerless as he is to good, he is still powerful to evil. We say rightly that a man can do nothing of himself, but we must always remember that the seat of impotence is his will. A will to repent and believe no man can give himself, but a will to reject Christ and have his own way, every man possesses by nature, and if not saved at last, that will shall prove to have been his destruction. "Ye will not come to me," says Christ, "that ye might have life." (John v. 40.)

Let us leave the subject with the comfortable reflection, that with Christ nothing is impossible. The hardest heart can be made willing in the day of His power. Grace beyond doubt is irresistible. But never let us forget, that the Bible speaks of man as a responsible being, and that it says of some, "ye do always resist the Holy Ghost." (Acts vii. 51.) Let us understand that the ruin of those who are lost, is not because Christ was not willing

to save them, nor yet because they wanted to be saved, but could not, but because they would not come to Christ. Let the ground we take up be always that of the passage we are now considering,-Christ would gather men, but they will not to be gathered; Christ would save men, but they will not to be saved. Let it be a settled principle in our religion, that man's salvation, if saved, is wholly of God; and that man's ruin, if lost, is wholly of himself. The evil that is in us is all our own. The good, if we have any, is all of God. The saved in the next world will give God all the glory. The lost in the next world will find that they have destroyed themselves. (Hosea xiii. 9.)

MATTHEW XXIV. 1-14.

1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.

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.

3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

14 And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

THESE verses begin a chapter full of prophecy,-prophecy

of which a large portion is unfulfilled,—prophecy which ought to be deeply interesting to all true Christians. It is a subject to which the Holy Ghost says, we "do well to take heed." (2 Peter i.)

All portions of Scripture like this, ought to be approached with deep humility, and earnest prayer for the teaching of the Spirit. On no point have good men so entirely disagreed as on the interpretation of prophecy. On no point have the prejudices of one class, the dogmatism of a second, and the extravagance of a third, done so much to rob the church of truths, which God intended to be a blessing. Well says Olshausen, "What does not man see, or fail to see, when it serves to establish his own favourite opinions ?"

To understand the drift of the whole chapter, we must carefully keep in view the question which gave rise to our Lord's discourse. On leaving the temple for the last time, the disciples, with the natural feeling of Jews, had called their Master's attention to the splendid buildings of which it was composed. To their surprise and amazement, He tells them that the whole was about to be destroyed. These words appear to have sunk deeply into the minds of the disciples. They came to Him, as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, and asked Him with evident anxiety, "Tell us when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world ?"-In these words we see the clue to the subject of the prophecy now before us. It embraces three points,―one, the destruction of Jerusalem; -another, the second personal advent of Christ ;-and a third, the end of the world. These three points are un