[Those children had to oppose the example and authority of the Priests ; and, of course, were very imperfectly acquainted with the character of our Lord and Saviour : yet they praised and adored him with all their power. But we see Jesus as our incarnate God : we know the true end of his death as an atone- ment for our sins: we behold him risen, and exalted to the right hand of God, and ever living to make intercession for us. We, too, are urged by all possible motives to serve and glorify him. How culpable, then, shall tve be, if we neglect to honour him! and how will those children rise up in judgment against us, to condemn us, if we do not glorify him before the whole world ! I call on all of you, then, to get your minds impressed with the glory and excellency of your Saviour ; and from henceforth, both in public and in private, to adore and magnify him with your most grateful acclamations.]
i Lev. xiv. 21, 30 — 32. ^ 2 Cor. xii. 9.
' Samuel, Abijah, Josiah, Timothy, John the Baptist. ™ Here shew the importance of the Institution oi Sunday, or Infant, or Charity Schools.
n Eph. vi. 4. ° Prov. xxii. 6.
Matt. xxi. 18 — 22. Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig-tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, bid leaves
onli/, and said unto it. Let no fruit groiv on thee henceforivard for ever. And 'presentlij the fig-tree loithered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig-tree withered aivay ! Jesus ansioered and said unto them. Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig-tree, hut also, if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and he thou cast into the sea, it shall he done. And all things, tohat- soever ye shall ask in prayer, helieving, ye shall receive.
THE miracles wrought by our Lord were, for the most part, very different from those which had been performed by the great legislator of the Jews. Those by which Moses confirmed his divine mission were mostly awful and calamitous ; but those wrought in vindication of our Lord's authority, were all mild and benevolent, suited to the dispensation which he was sent to introduce. This, which we have now before us, may seem an exception^. Yet the injury done (if we may so speak) was small, since the tree was already barren ; and the miracle, if it had been duly attended to, might have saved thousands from both temporal and everlasting destruction. We shall,
L Explain the miracle —
There is some difficulty with respect to the literal meaning of a part of this narration —
[The miracle, as related by St. Matthew, is easy to be understood; but St. Mark mentions, that "the time of figs was not yet^." This has given occasion to infidels to represent our Lord as looking for figs at a season when, according to the Evangelist's own confession, there was no probabiHty of finding any. But " the time of figs" refers to the time of gathering them ; and as that time was not yet fully come, there was every reason to expect that the whole crop was yet upon the tree. The fruit of a fig-tree grows at least as early as the leaves ; and therefore, as the foliage was luxuriant, there was ground to hope that the fruit also was abundant. This accounts in an easy manner for the disappointment experienced by our Lord ; and shews how weak and frivolous
* That of sending the devils into th'e herd of swine was rather a permission to them to fulfil their own desire, than an actual miracle wrought by our Lord himself.
^ Mark xi. 13.