lic song of
thirty-three years before, over the plain of Bethlehem, had not yet died
away, and was echoed from Olivet.

In that hour did John and James have thoughts about sitting one on the
right hand and the other on the left in a kingdom which seemed near at
hand? Did they and the other disciples, who had been disappointed
because their Lord had refused on the shore of Galilee to be made king,
imagine that He certainly would now be willing to be crowned in
Jerusalem?

When John wrote his account of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, he
recalled the prophecy concerning it. It is claimed that he speaks of
himself and Peter in particular when he says, "These things understood
not the disciples at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then
remembered they that these things were written, and that they had done
these things unto Him." This was a frank confession of his own dulness
and ignorance: it is also an assurance of his later wisdom.

We see John on the highway of Olivet, a chosen disciple to aid His Lord
in the hour of His earthly glory. We shall see him, even down to old
age, in a yet nobler sense, a Herald of the King.

_CHAPTER XXI_

_With the Master on Olivet_

"Some spake of the Temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones
and offerings."--_Luke_ xxi. 5.

"One of His disciples saith unto Him, Master, behold, what manner
of stones and what manner of buildings! And Jesus said unto him,
Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left here one
stone upon another, which shall not be thrown down."

"As He sat on the Mount of Olives over against the Temple, Peter
and James and John and Andrew asked Him privately, Tell us, when
shall these things be? and, What shall be the sign when these
things are all about to be accomplished?"--_Mark_ xiii. 1-4.

The Temple was the most sacred of all places, even before the Lord of
the Temple entered it. His presence became its chiefest glory. In the
hour when the waiting Simeon at last could there say "he had seen the
Lord's Christ," it had a new consecration, and a beauty which its
richness of materials and adornments had never given. In the hour when
He there said to His mother, "Wist ye not that I must be in My Father's
House?" or, "I must be about My Father's business," it was more
consecrated still. Twice He had cleansed it from the profanation of
unholy worshipers. Within it He had spoken as no ma