and I will give him my heart, hear and obey him, and make it the great business of my life to live with him for ever.

11. And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.

What a mercy it is that we have such a prophet, to declare the will of God to us, and put us in the way to heaven! and what are we doing, when we pay little regard to his teaching, neglect his work, and have few prayers or none for a blessing upon it?

SECTION LIII.

Chap. xxi. ver. 12-19.

THE SECOND DAY, MONDAY; CHRIST CLEANSES THE

TEMPLE.

Mark xi. 12-19; Luke xix. 45-48; John xii. 20-43.

12. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves.

As thou wentest into the temple, so come, Lord Jesus, into our souls, and make them pure and sacred temples of the Holy Ghost, and cast everything out of them which is unsuitable to the place of God's residence.

"And cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple." The outer court of it in the open air. Their pretence for keeping a market there was to accommodate those who came to the feast with beasts for sacrifice, &c. But Christ judged this to be a profanation of the holy place, and would not suffer it to be converted to common use on any account whatsoever.

13. And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Now lift up your hearts, in a devout wish that this may always be the house of prayer to you; of heavenly thoughts, of holy breathings after God, and reverent attention to his word. "But ye have made it a den of thieves !" Did he know them to be remarkably such? Or is it intimated that injustice, which in God's eyes is robbery, sticks close to buying and selling?

14. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.

Our blessed Saviour's zeal for the house of God does not make him inattentive to the wants of the afflicted. We seldom read of the exercise of his power in judgment, but often see it exercised in acts of mercy. Wherever he was, in the temple or in a private house, in a populous city or in a desert, we find him surrounded by miserable objects, whose application for help he never rejected. We may from hence learn the kindness of his compassionate heart, and how ready he is at all times to heal the malady of our souls. If we are sensible of our spiritual blindness and inability to walk in his ways, we do not look up to him in vain.

15. And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased,

16. And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say?

Those who will not say, "Hosanna to the son of David," hate, and are sore displeased with those that do, and labour all they can to stop their mouths.

16. And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou has perfected praise ?

Let us beseech God that this may be verified in us; as it will, if we resign ourselves in humility, and an unfeigned sense of our blindness, to the great Teacher. Without him we are all babes, one as well as another, high or low, rich or poor, learned or unlearned; and he who alone teaches

any, can teach all effectually, and make the meanest and most ignorant praise God for their conversion by him.

17. And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.

Christ left them to their own hardness and impenitence.O Jesus! what are we when thou leavest us! And why are we given up to so sore a judgment, but because we first leave thee?

18. Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.

That is, in the morning of the same day.

19. And when he saw a fig-tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the figtree withered away.

He who could blast the fig-tree with a word speaking, knew before he came to it that he should find no fruit on it. The design of his coming to it, was to teach us the dreadful issue of unfruitfulness, the impossibility of our bearing fruit when he withdraws his blessing, and the miraculous power of faith and of faith and prayer.

SECTION LIV.

Chap. xxi. ver. 20-22.

THE THIRD DAY, TUESDAY.

Matt. xxi. 20; xxv.; Mark xi. 20-33; xii. xiii; Luke xxi. xxi.; John xii. 44-50.

20. And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig-tree withered away!

This took place on the morning of the third day, as the times are exactly distinguished by St. Mark, chap. xi.

21. Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you,

If

ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig-tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

Did Jesus say this only to the disciples, concerning outward miracles? No, verily; but we all want such a wonderworking faith for our own healing. When, therefore, thy temptation is strong, and thy sin hard to be overcome, never think of removing this mountain in thy own power, but fly to thy almighty, compassionate Saviour, who can both cleanse from sin, and give strength against it.

When we have a lively sense of our guilt and weakness, it is hard not to doubt. But call to mind what you know of Jesus, and that he came into the world for this very end, to convince you of his power and will to help you; that in the belief of it you might find rest to your souls, and be delivered from all your fears.

22. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing, ye shall receive.

This is a very comfortable assurance from Christ's own mouth, and great encouragement to prayer, if we did but know what we want, and what we should ask. See first whether your great want is not want of desire for spiritual blessings; for without it there is neither faith nor prayer.

SECTION LV.

Chap. xxi. ver. 23-32.

CHRIST PUTS TO SILENCE THE PRIESTS AND ELDERS.

23. And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?

24. And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you

one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things.

Jesus would ask them, for their farther instruction, if they would have been sincere with him; for their confusion, as they were not.

25. The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?

Let us look at ourselves. This was miserable shuffling, but it is very common. There is no acting avowedly against conscience and reason; but the misfortune is, we have always some kind of sophistry at hand, to stifle the one, and blind the other, when we have no mind to be convinced.

26. But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.

27. And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.

They said, "We cannot tell," but they would not. "Neither tell I you." This is the most grievous of all curses.-Lord, grant we may never bring it upon ourselves, nor deprive ourselves of the benefit of thy teaching, by our insincerity and opposition to the truth.

28. But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.

So he says to us all every day concerning the great work we have to do under him.

29. He answered and said, I will not but afterward he repented, and went.

What should we think of our hearts, if they were as well known to ourselves, as they are to God, that they often say this, "I will not ?" "But afterward he repented, and went." Observe; repentance is an effectual