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in Jerusalem, up to the top of the Mount of Olives. There Jesus took
his seat, and his disciples sat around him, anxious to ask him some
questions about what he had said to them in the temple. We read in
St. Mark xiii: 1-2, that as he was going out of the temple the
disciples called his attention to the beauty of that sacred building
and the great size and splendor of some of the stones that were in
it. Then Jesus pointed to that great building, and told them that the
time was coming when it would be destroyed, and "there should not be
left one stone upon another that should not be thrown down." This
filled the minds of the disciples with surprise and wonder. They
supposed that their temple would last as long as the world stood.
They thought that it was the end of the world of which Jesus was
speaking; and they were very anxious that he should tell them
something more about it. And so, as soon as they were seated around
him, on the Mount of Olives, they said, "Tell us, when shall these
things be? and what shall be the sign, when all these things shall be
fulfilled?" St. Mark xii: 4.

And now, we may imagine ourselves sitting with Jesus and his
disciples on the Mount of Olives. As we look down we see the city of
Jerusalem spread out beneath our feet. We see its walls, and its
palaces. And there, just before us, outshining everything in its
beauty, is that sacred temple, that was "forty and six years in
building." Its white marble walls, its golden spires, and pinnacles,
are sparkling in the beams of the sun, as they shine upon them. No
wonder the Jews were so proud of it! It was a glorious building.

But now Jesus is beginning to speak. Let us listen to what he says.
The lessons that he taught on the Mount of Olives run all through the
twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters of St. Matthew. In the first
of these chapters, Jesus gave them a sign, by which those who learn
to understand what he here says, might know when his second coming is
to take place. These are some of the lessons from Olivet. I should
like, very much, to stop and talk about them. But this cannot be
now. We pass over to the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew. In this
chapter we have three of our Saviour's parables. These are very
solemn and instructive. They all refer to the judgment that must take
place when Jesus shall come into our world again. The second of these
parables is the one we are now to consider. It is called--"The
Parable of the Ta