gate of the Lord, into
which THE RIGHTEOUS ONE shall enter!" Jesus refused and disowned none of
these gratulations--He spurned no voice in all that motley Jerusalem
throng. There were endless diversities and phases, doubtless, of human
character and history there. The once proud formalist, the once greedy
extortioner, the hated tax-gatherer, the rich nobleman, the child of
penury, the Roman officer, the peasant or fisherman of Galilee, the
humbled publican, the woman from the city, the reclaimed victim of
misery and guilt! All were there as types and samples of that
diversified multitude who, in every age, were to own Him as King, and
receive His gracious benediction.

We have spoken of this incident as a glimpse of glory before His
sufferings. Alas! it _was_ but a glimpse. What a picture of the
fickleness and treachery of the heart!--That excited populace who are
now shouting their hosannahs, are ere long to be raising the cry,
"Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Four days hence we shall find the palm
branches lying withered on the Bethany road, and the blazing torches of
an assassin-band nigh the very spot where He is now passing with an
applauding retinue! "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his
nostrils."

It does not belong to our narrative to record the remaining transactions
of this day in Jerusalem. The shades of evening find the Saviour once
more repairing to Bethany. The evangelist _Mark_, in the course of his
narrative, simply but touchingly says:--"And Jesus entered into
Jerusalem, and into the temple, and when He had looked round about upon
all things" (the mitred priests, the bleeding victims, the costly
buildings), "and now the eventide was come, he went out unto BETHANY
with the twelve." (Mark xi. 11.) As He returned to the sweet calm of
that quiet home, if He could not fail to think of the hours of darkness
and agony before Him, could He reap no joy or consolation in the
thought, that that very day week the redemption of His people was to be
consummated--the glory that surrounded the grave and resurrection of
Lazarus was to be eclipsed by the marvels of His own!

XIX.

THE FIG-TREE.

The hosannahs of yesterday had died away--the memorials of its triumph
were strewed on the road across Olivet--as, early on the Monday morning,
while the sun was just appearing above the Mountains of Moab, the Divine
Redeemer left His Bethany retreat, and was seen retraversing the
well-worn path to Jerusalem. Here