c,,urse which led inevitauly to this very doom. If they only walked on in the path al,,ng "·bich they v.·ere then hurrying, they were bound to reach that "miserable" end, II. lTs Al'PLICATION TO OUR OWN HEARTS AND LIVES. 1. We may be supposing ourselves incapable of wrong-doing the seeds of which are already sown in our heart. Hazael pron•d to have "dog" enough in him to do the worst things he shuddered at when he spoke (2 Kiugs viii. 13). David discovered that he was capable of a selfish- ness which he was condemning to death in another (2 Sam. xii. 6-7). These Jews shrank from an act:on which was described to them, as a thing too base for them to commit; and yet they were in the very act of committing it. We little know what possibilities of evil are within us; we cannot estimate aright onr own capacity for wron!!:-doing. Probably every man has in his heart something of which sin may lay hold in some dark hour, and by which he may conceivably be led down to guilt and shame. The declension and fall of those who once stood among the worthiest and the most honoured speaks to us in earnest tones of the possible wandering of our own souls from God and goodness. Even Paul realized this stern possibility, and actecl upon it (1 Cor. ix. 27). The histories of the erring and ruined souls of men who once seemed beyond the reach of wrong and crime, but who became entangled in their meshes and v.·ere slain by them, call u~on us to be (1) watchful with a constant vigilance, and (2) prayerful with an unflaggmg earnestness, lest we too fall under the power of temptation (Matt. xxvi. 41). 2. We may be supposing ourselves safe from a doom which lies straight in front of us. How many a youth imagines himself secure from a degradation and a darkness toward which he ha.a, in the sight of God, already set his foot! How many a man considers himself safe from a lo\V and dishonourable level, when he is already on the slope that leads down to it I What if we could see the goal to which the path we tread is tending! "God forbid," we say, "that this should be onr destiny!" and all the while our face is turned in that direction. There is "an earnest need for prayer" that God would show us what is the way in _which we are walking; that, if we are in the wrong road, be would "apprehend" us even as he apprehended his chosen messenger (Phil. iii. 12), and turn our feet into the way of his testimonies (Ps. cxxxi:x. 23, 24).-C.
Ver. 17.-The rejection and exaltation of Christ. We look at- I. THE REJECTION OF JEsus CHRIST. Its strangeness. 1. From an evidential point of view. How came the builders to reject that valuable Stone? How was it that all the miracles of Jesus, so wonderful, so beneficent, so simple, o,nd so credible as they were; that the life of Jesus, so holy and so beautiful, so gracious and so winning as it was; that the truth spoken by Jesus, so profound, so original, so lofty, so satisfying to the deepest wants of man as it was ;-how came it to pass that all this left him the "despised and rejected of men"? 2. From a providential point of view. How do we account for it that there should have been such a long and complicated preparation for the coming of the Messiah of the Jews, and of the Redeemer of mankind, and that be should fail to be recognized when he came? Does not all that Divine arrangement of Law and ritual and prophecy, of privilege and discipline, seem to have been attended with failure? Of what use was all that elaborate preparation, when the people of God rejected the Son of God? when he to whom everything pointed, and of whom everything foretold, was not welcomed and honoured, but denounced as a deceiver and slain as a criminal? II. CoNSIDEBATIONS WHICH ACCOtmT FOR IT; or which, if they do not account for it, lessen our surprise concerning it. 1. As to the evidential difficulty. We need not wonder that the very strongest evidence failed to convince those who were uncon- vinced. What evidence can prevail against bigotry (or prejudice) and selfishness com- bined? Our knowledge and experience of mankind must have abundantly proved that either of these can repel the clearest and weightiest proofa; much more can both of them. And surely prejudice and self-interest never found a firmer seat than they found in the minds of the "chief priests aud the scribes" who led the opposition to our Lord. 2. As to the providential cifficulty. We must take into our consideration (1) the fact that God's dealings with our race include such apparent failures as this, and obligo us to wait the issue before we judge; (2) the fact that the long preparation of Israel was by I)O means wholly an apparent failure. '!'hen is evidence of much fulfilment of 011, xx. 1-i7.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 175