pestilence that can be conceived. Women are reported to have actually eaten their own children during the siege for want of food. Upon none did the last judgments sent upon the Jewish nation fall so heavily as upon the wives, the mothers, and the little children.

Let us beware of supposing that the Lord Jesus holds out to man nothing but mercy, pardon, love, and forgiveness. Beyond all doubt He is plenteous in mercy. There is mercy with Him like a mighty stream. He "delighteth in mercy." But we must never forget that there is justice with Him as well as mercy. There are judgments preparing for the impenitent and the unbelieving. There is wrath revealed in the Gospel for those who harden themselves in wickedness. The same cloud which was bright to Israel was dark to the Egyptians. The same Lord Jesus who invites the labouring and heavy-laden to come to Him and rest, declares most plainly that unless a man repents he will perish, and that he who believeth not shall be damned. (Luke xiii. 3. Mark xvi. 16.) The same Saviour who now holds out His hands to the disobedient and gainsaying, will come one day in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those that know not God and obey not the Gospel. (2) Thess. i. 8.) Let these things sink down into our hearts. Christ is indeed most gracious. But the day of grace must come to an end at last. An unbelieving world will find at length, as Jerusalem did, that there is judgment with God as well as mercy. No wrath will fall so heavily as that which has been long accumulating and heaping up.

We ought to notice, for another thing, in this passage,

our Lord's words of gracious intercession. We read that when He was crucified, His first words were, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." His own racking agony of body did not make Him forget others. The first of His seven sayings on the cross was a prayer for the souls of His murderers. His prophetical office He had just exhibited by a remarkable prediction. His kingly office He was about to exhibit soon by opening the door of paradise to the penitent thief. His priestly office He now exhibited by interceding for those who crucified Him. "Father," He said, "forgive them."

The fruits of this wonderful prayer will never be fully seen until the day when the books are opened, and the secrets of all hearts are revealed. We have probably not the least idea how many of the conversions to God at Jerusalem which took place during the first six months after the crucifixion, were the direct reply to this marvellous prayer. Perhaps this prayer was the first step towards the penitent thief's repentance. Perhaps it was one means of affecting the centurion, who declared our Lord "a righteous man," and the people who "smote their breasts and returned." Perhaps the three thousand converted on the day of Pentecost, foremost, it may be at one time among our Lord's murderers, owed their conversion to this very prayer.-The day will declare it. There is nothing secret that shall not be revealed. This only we know, that "the Father heareth the Son alway.” (John xi. 42.) We may be sure that this wondrous prayer was heard.

Let us see in our Lord's intercession for those who crucified Him, one more proof of Christ's infinite love to

sinners. The Lord Jesus is indeed most pitiful, most compassionate, most gracious. None are too wicked for Him to care for. None are too far gone in sin for His almighty heart to take interest about their souls. He wept over unbelieving Jerusalem. He heard the prayer of the dying thief. He stopped under the tree to call the publican Zacchæus. He came down from heaven to turn the heart of the persecutor Saul. He found time to pray for His murderers even on the cross. Love like this is a love that passeth knowledge. The vilest of sinners have no cause to be afraid of applying to a Saviour like this. If we want warrant and encouragment to repent and believe, the passage before us surely supplies enough.

Finally, let us see in our Lord's intercession, a striking example of the spirit which should reign in the hearts of all His people. Like Him, let us return good for evil, and blessing for cursing. Like Him, let us pray for those who evil entreat us and persecute us. The pride of our hearts may often rebel against the idea. this world may call it mean-spirited to behave in such a way. But let us never be ashamed to imitate our divine Master. The man who prays for his enemies, shows the mind that was in Christ, and will have his reward.

NOTES. LUKE XXIII. 26-38.

The fashion of

26.-[As they led him away, &c.] Let it be noted, that St. Luke says nothing about the cruel treatment which our Lord received from the Roman soldiers, after Pilate had condemned Him. His Gospel was specially written for the Gentiles, and he purposely passes over the conduct of the Gentiles at this particular stage of our Lord's passion.

I cannot admit the justice of Alford's remark on this verse. He says, "The break between the 25th and 26th verses is harsh

it

in the extreme, and if Luke had any materials wherewith to fill up, I have no doubt he would have done so." I deeply regret the tendency of this remark. I believe that St. Luke was entirely guided by the Holy Ghost, both in the details which he omits and the details which he inserts. And I believe that the omission of any details of Christ's passion between the condem nation and the going forth to Calvary, was advisedly and wisely ordered, in order to meet the prejudices of Gentile readers.

[They laid hold upon one Simon, &c.] It would appear that our Lord carried the cross Himself until He was exhausted, and that after this Simon was pressed into the service of carrying it by the soldiers.

Nothing certain is known about this Simon, although the mention of his sons, Alexander and Rufus, by St. Mark, (Mark xv. 21.), would lead us to suppose that he was a disciple of Christ when the Gospels were written, whatever he was at the time of the crucifixion. Cornelius à Lapide mentions several traditions concerning Simon and his sons, which are not worth repeating.

27.-[A great company of people and of women.] Who these were we are not told. Some commentators think they were disciples and friends of Christ. Most think that they were persons who were moved to pity by the sight of an innocent person suffering, but had no sense of their own sins, and no faith in Christ. "Melting affections," says Burkitt, are not infallible marks of grace, even when they proceed from a sense of Christ's sufferings." This last opinion seems most probable, when we consider the tenor of the next two verses.

66

Burgon quotes a remark, "That no woman is mentioned as speaking against our Lord in His life, or having a share in His death. On the contrary, He was anointed by a woman for His burial;—women were the last at His grave and the first at His resurrection ;—to a woman He first appeared when He rose again;-women ministered to His wants;-women bewailed and lamented Him;-a heathen woman interceded for His life with her husband, Pilate;—and, above all, of a woman He was born."

28.-[Daughters of Jerusalem.] This expression helps the theory that the people who accompanied our Lord to Calvary were not disciples. We have no account in the Gospels of any women of Jerusalem who believed.

[Yourselves and your children.] Let it be noted, that many of the women to whom our Lord here spoke, might easily have been living forty years after, when Titus took Jerusalem."

29.-The days are coming, &c.] These "days" mean the period of the last wars between the Jews and the Romans, and in particular the siege of Jerusalem.

30.-[To say to the mountains...to the hills, &c.] The expressions of this verse are figurative and parabolical. They signify the intense misery and distress, and the desperate helplessness of all who would be found inside Jerusalem during its siege. See Isai. ii. 19. Heb. x. 8. Rev. vi. 16.

Some have seen a reference in the words to the caverns and excavations in the rocks under Jerusalem, in which many of the Jews took refuge when the city was taken.

31.-[A green tree...the dry.] The common opinion of all the best commentators is, that our Lord here contrasts Himself and the Jewish nation. "If the Romans practice such cruelties on me, who am a green tree, and the very source of life, what will they do one day to your nation, which is like a barren, withered trunk, dead in trespasses and sins?"

Bengel maintains that the "green tree" here represents the young, strong, and healthy, and the "dry tree," the old, feeble, and barren. In support of this view he quotes a passage from Josephus, describing how the Romans, after Jerusalem was taken, slew the old and feeble Jews, but shut up in confinement those who were vigourous and serviceable. In this opinion, however, Bengel stands almost alone.

32.-Malefactors led with him.] This, let it be noted, was a literal fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy, that Messiah was to be “numbered with the transgressors." (Isai. liii. 12.)

33.-[The place which is called Calvary.] The reason why this place was so called is not known with certainty, and has given rise to many conjectures.

Origen, Tertullian, Athanasius, Epiphanius, Augustine, Cyril, and others, according to Cornelius à Lapide, hold the absurd opinion, that Calvary was the place where Adam was buried.

Jerome, Beda, Jansenius, and others, hold that Calvary was a place where criminals were executed, and sometimes beheaded, and where sculls and bones of dead men were consequently lying about.

Some have thought that Calvary was a bare, rocky hill, not unlike a scull in shape and appearance, and that hence arose its

name.

Let it be noted, that at the time when our Lord was crucified, Calvary was outside the walls of Jerusalem. It was meet and right that our Lord, as the great sacrifice for sin, should suffer without the gate. (Heb. xiii. 12.) At the present day, the place commonly supposed to have been Calvary is within the walls of Jerusalem.

The common opinion that Calvary was a mount or hill is, at any rate, destitute of any foundation in Scripture. All the four