23. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

But when he took off his veil and revealed to Zelica his true features, he was such a monster of deformity that he exclaimed:

"Here, judge if hell, with all its power to damn,

Can add one curse to the foul thing I am!”

-

PAPER FLOWER DECORATIONS.- I happened to reach Paris a few weeks ago, the day after the Czar of all the Russias left the city, and the whole gay metropolis was several degrees gayer than usual by reason of the wonderfully elaborate decorations in his honor. Walking along the Champs Elysées, the most magnificent avenue, which leads from the Tuilleries to the Arc de Triomphe, I was almost startled to see that many of the trees by the roadside were putting forth buds and blossoms in those bleak October days as if it were genial springtime. But upon looking a little more closely, I saw that the cherry blossoms and peach blows and apple buds were all made of tissue paper, and were skillfully wired to the trees in countless thousands, evidently to give the Czar the impression that in his honor the seasons had been reversed, and spring for once had come in October. But even while I looked at these unnatural glories of the autumn, an army of workmen came along and began to strip the streets of their decorations; and I suppose that after a day or two scarcely a paper blossom could be found on one of the wind-swept trees." -Rev. F. E. Clark, D.D.

LIBRARY.-Dante's "Inferno." In the eighth circle, and fifth pit, Dante saw the hypocrites. "We found a painted people.' 'They had hoods lowered before their eyes made of the same cut as those of the monks in Cluny. Outwardly they are gilded so that it dazzles, but within all lead, and so heavy that Frederich put Hypocrites them on of straw' (alluding to the leaden cloaks which in Dante. the Emperor Frederich II. caused to be put on criminals, who were then burned to death; which were light as straw in comparison with these). 'Oh, mantle wearisome for eternity.'" -Professor Norton's translation.

24. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

25. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

26. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean aiso.

27. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

A.D. 30.
Tuesday,
April 4.

LAST DAY IN
THE TEMPLE.
PASSION
WEEK.

THE PHARISEES
AS A WARNING.

28. Even so ye outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

29. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,

24. STRAIN AT.—divλíšovтes. diá, thoroughly or through, and vígw, to filter or strain. Strain at is an old misprint perpetuated. Hence the Rev. correctly, as Tynd., strain out. Insects were ceremonially unclean (Lev. xi. 20, 23, 41, 42), so that the Jews strained their wine in order not to swallow any unclean animal. Moreover, there were certain insects which bred in wine. Aristotle uses the word gnat (Kúνwña) of a worm or larva found in the sediment of sour wine. “In a ride from Tangier to Tetuan I observed that a Moorish soldier who accompanied me, when he drank, always unfolded the end of his turban and placed it over the mouth of his bota, drinking through the muslin to strain out the gnats, whose larvæ swarm in the water of that country" (cited by Trench, "On the Authorized Version "). -Professor M. R. Vincent, Word-Studies.

29. BUILD THE TOMBS OF THE PROPHETS.-At the base of the Mount of Olives, not far from the temple, and possibly within sight when Jesus spoke these words, were four remarkable monuments which still stand, and "are miscalled at present the tombs of Zechariah, Absalom, Jehoshaphat and St. James. They would be conspicuous objects to any one standing on the platform of the temple." They seem to belong to the time of Herod. "Two of them," says Prof. Vincent, " were monoliths cut out of the solid rock, the others were merely excavations with ornamental portals." "They appear," says Dr. Thomson, "to be quite extensive, consisting of winding or semi-circular galleries, passing the Temple. under the mountain more than one hundred feet from

The Tombs

in Sight of

30. And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

31. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

32. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

33. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

34. ¶ Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes : and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:

35. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

36. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

East to West, and terminating in a rotunda about eighty feet from the entrance." The reference would be all the more telling, if, as has been conjectured, the Pharisees were engaged in constructing the tombs of Zechariah and Absalom at the time that the Lord addressed them, and if the chambered sepulchres of James and Jehoshaphat, lying between those two, were the sepulchres which they were garnishing at their entrances."

EULOGIES OF THE DEAD.-"There are some who bestow eulogiums that are really just on persons whom they had always been accustomed to revile, calumniate, thwart, and persecute on every occasion; and this they seemed to regard as establishing their own character for eminent generosity. And they usually escape the welldeserved reproach . . . for having been occupied in opposing and insulting one, who, by their own showing, deserved quite contrary

treatment.

"It may be fairly suspected that the one circumstance respecting him, which they secretly dwell on with the most satisfaction, though they do not mention it, is that he is dead; according to the concluding couplet in the verses on the 'Death of Dean Swift':

"And since you dread no further lashes.
Methinks you may forgive his ashes.'

-Archbishop Whately.

LIBRARY.-Lowell's Essays, "Dante," p. 141; Whately's "Anno

tations," p. 18-19.

37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

38. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

39. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

A.D. 30.
Tuesday,
April 4.

LAST DAY IN
THE TEMPLE.
PASSION
WEEK.

THE PHARISEES
AS A WARNING.

The Vision

of Jesus.

37. O JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM.-In vision he saw the most terrible siege on record, in which the besieged "fought for miserable scraps," chewed belts and shoes, and tore off the leather from their shields, and ate wisps of hay, and even then died by thousands from the horrors of famine; 97,000 were taken prisoners, and 1,100,000 perished. The ground around the city was planted thick with crosses on which Jews were crucified, till there was room for no more. Did he not also look beyond this to the more awful destiny of those whom even the infinite love of God could not lead to repentance? Even in the midst of our rejoicing over the triumphs of Christianity, we should weep over those who will not be saved.

"Ye hearts that love the Lord,

If at this sight ye burn,

See that in thought, in deed, in word,

Ye hate what made him mourn."

-Keble.

ROSES ON DEMONS.-In Retsch's illustrations of Goethe's "Faust," there is one plate where angels are dropping roses upon the demons who are contending for Faust's soul, and every rose is like molten metal, burning and blistering wherever it touches.

CHAPTER XXIV.

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.

A.D. 30. Tuesday Afternoon, April 4. PASSION WEEK.

MOUNT OF OLIVES. PROPHECIES OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, AND OF THE END OF THE WORLD.

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.

The Two
Rabbis.

2. NOT BE LEFT HERE ONE STONE UPON ANOTHER. — It is stated that two Jewish rabbis were crossing Zion hill in Jerusalem and saw a fox run by. One wept at the sight, while the other cheerfully smiled. He who had laughed inquired the cause of the other's tears. "How can I help weeping," he replied, "when I see the threatenings against our holy city so exactly fulfilled?" "And for that reason I rejoice," said the other, "for the prophecies of its glorious restoration are equally plain and numerous; and, as the punishment has been literally executed, we may the more certainly expect the accomplishment of the promises."

6. HEAR OF WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS. . . BE NOT TROUBLED. Taking the world as it is, it is impossible that the kingdom of God should come without awaking opposition and wars, any more than one can build a house without disturbing the ground; or improve a city by putting in gas, electricity, water-works, and electric roads, without disturbing the streets.