fitftd and spasmodic. It is for want of steady, constant faith, that so few can say with Christ, " I shall walk to-day, and to-morrow, and not die tiU my work is done.'*
Let us learn, for another thing, from these verses, how great is the compamon of our Lord Jesm Christ towards siwners. We see this brought out in a most forcible manner by our Lord's language about Jerusalem. He knew well the wickedness of that city. He knew what crimes had been committed there in times past. He knew what was coming on Himself, at the time of His crucifixion. Yet eren to Jerusalem He says, "How often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not."
It grieves the Loixi Jesus Christ to see sinners going on still in their wickedness. "As I live,'' are His words "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.'' (Ezek. xxxiii. 11.) Let all unconverted people remember this. It is not enough that they grieve parents, and ministers, and neighbours, and fiiends. There is one higher than all these, whom they deeply grieve by their condaet. They are daily grieving Christ.
The Lord Jesus is willing to save sinners. "He is not willing that any should perish, but that all shoidd come to repentance." " He would have all men saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." (2 Pet. iii. 9; 1 Tim. ii. 4.) This is a mighty principle of the Gospel, and one which sorely perplexes narrow- minded and shallow theologians. But what says the Scripture P The words before us, no less than the texts