be offered as a sacrifice on Calvary. Knowing all this, He no longer, as in time past, sought secrecy. Knowing all this. He thought it good to enter the place where He was to be delivered to death, with peculiar solemnity and publicity. It was not fitting that the Lamb of God should come to be slain on Calvary privately and silently. Before the great sacrifice for the sins of the world was ofi'ered up, it was right that every eye should be fixed on the victim. It was suitable that the crowning act of our Lord^s life should be done with as much notoriety as possible. Therefore it was that He made this public entry. Therefore it was that He attracted to himself the eyes of the wondering multitude. Therefore it was that all Jerusalem was moved. The atoning blood of the Lamb of God was about to be shed. The deed was not to be " done in a corner." (Acts xxvi. 26.)
It is good to remember these things. The real mean- ing of our Lord's conduct at this period of His histoiy is not sufficiently considered by many readers of this pas- sage. It remains for us to consider the j^ractical lessons which these verses appear to point out.
In the first place, let us notice in these verses an example of our Lord Jesus Christ's perfect knoidedge. He sends His two disciples into a village. He tells them that they will there find the ass on which he was to ride. He provides them with an answer to the inquiry of those to whom the ass belonged. He tells them that on giving that answer the ass will be sent. And all happens exactly as He foretells.
There is nothing hid from the Lord's eyes. There are
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no secrets with Him. Alone or in company, by night or by day, in private or in public, He is acquainted with all our ways. He that saw Nathanael under the fig-tree is unchanged. Go where we will, and retire from the world as we may, we are never out of sight of Christ.
This is a thought that ought to exercise a restraining and sanctifying effect on our souls. We all know the influence which the presence of the rulers of this world has upon their subjects. Nature itself teaches us to put a check on our tongues, and demeanor, and behavior, when we are under the eye of a king. The sense of our Lord Jesus Christ's perfect knowledge of all our ways, ought to have the same efiect upon our hearts. Let us do nothing we would not like Christ to see, and say nothing we would not like Christ to hear. Let us seek to live and move and have our being under a continual recollection of Christ's presence. Let us behave as we would have done had we walked beside Him, in the company of James and John, by the sea of Galilee. This is the way to be trained for heaven. In heaven, " we shall ever be toith the Lord." (1 Thess. iv. 17.)
In the second place, let us notice ia these verses an ex~ ample of the manner in luhich prophecies concerning our Lord's first coming were fulfilled. We are told that His public entry fulfilled the words of Zechariah, " Thy King Cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass."
It appears that this prediction was literally and ex- actly fulfilled. The words which the prophet spake by the Holy Ghost received no figurative accomplishment. As he said, so it came to pass. As he foretold, so it was done. Five hundred and fifty years had passed away
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