November 29 — On Christ weeping over Jerusalem, Luke xix

Consider, first, how our Lord, coming for the last time to vifw it Jerusalem, a few days before his passion; when he drew near seeing the city, he wept over it, saying: If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are for thy peace: hut now they are hidden from thy eyes. For the days shall come up on thee: and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and com pass thee round, and straiten thee on every side, and beat thee fat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee: and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone: because thou luist not knoton the time of thy visitation. Our Lord, in this his last coming to Jerusalem, is accompanied with crowds of people, bearing branches of palms in their hands, and welcoming him with hosannas of joy; but his attention is engaged by the melancholy object he has before his eyes of that unh.ippy city, and of all the evils t.»at were coming upon it, which he bewails in this pathetic manner Not that the beating down of stone walls, or the destroying o liouses, Was a matter worthy of the tears of the Son of God; nor yet that men, who are all doomed to die, should die a little before their time; but the miseries which he lamented were of another kind, namely, the blindness, and the hardness of heart, of the inhabitants of this city, so highly favoured by his visits; their extreme ingratitude, and their obstinacy in sin; and that final reprobation, and eternal damnation, which they were quickly drawing down upon their own heads, by their repeated abuses, and wilful resistance of those extraordinary graces, which he offered them at this time of their visitation. Christians, beware lest the like abuses of divine grace should draw down the like judgments upon you also.

Consider, secondly, that you have at present yoz/r day as Jerusalem had then. This is your day, a time of mercy and grace, in which the Son of God daily visits you, by many gracious calls and inspirations: his sacraments and sacrifice, the fountains of your Saviour, are now continually open for you, together with all manner of helps for your salvation. But what use do you make of this your day? For it is short, and will quickly be at an end; and then the day of the Lord must take place. Have you a right sense and knowledge, in this your day, of the thiygs that are for your peace, and for your true welfare? Do the thixigs of God and eternity make a due impression on our souls? Is the conduct of your life regulated by them 1 Or are not these great truths, through your own fault, hidden at present from your eyes? O, take care, lest, if you pass by unregarded this time of your visitation, as Jerusalem did, the days should suddenly come upon you also, when your spiritual enemies shall vast a trench about you and straiten you on every side, and beat you flat to the ground, dLC. Namely, when the sorrows of death shall compass you, and the perils of hell shall find you 4 and the grace of God, which you have so long abused shall leave you in the hands of your enemies.

Consider, thirdly, how our Saviour, after w'eeping over Jerusalem, and denouncing to it its final desolation, entering into the temple, began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that ought; saying to them, It is written. My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves, (Luke xix..) giving us to understand, by this his proceeding on this oci-asion, that the profanation of the house of God, and of sacred things, the love of gain more than of godliness, and a gross neglect of prayer and other religious duties, is the high road to blindness, and hardness of heart, and consequently to a dreadful and eternal reprobation. Christians, take care, lest, imitating in these particulars the guilt of the Jews, you draw upon your heads the I ke punishments. The soul of every Christian ouglit to oe the temple of the living God, (2 Cor. vi. 16,) And, in that quality, the house of prayer, O, take care you never be so unhappy as to turn this house of prayer into a den of thieves, by shutting out from hence the fear and love of God, and letting in sin and Satan.

Conclude to attend, in this your day, to the things that apper> tain to your peace, and not to neglect the time of your visitation; lest, by a want of corresponding with grace, you be so unhappy as to fill up the measure of your sin, and suddenly to fall, when you least expect it, into the hands of the living God.