which was to open for Him when He should
be "brought as a lamb to the slaughter."(4) Not far distant was Calvary,
the place of crucifixion. Upon the path which Christ was soon to tread
must fall the horror of great darkness as He should make His soul an
offering for sin. Yet it was not the contemplation of these scenes that
cast the shadow upon Him in this hour of gladness. No foreboding of His
own superhuman anguish clouded that unselfish spirit. He wept for the
doomed thousands of Jerusalem--because of the blindness and impenitence of
those whom He came to bless and to save.

The history of more than a thousand years of God's special favor and
guardian care, manifested to the chosen people, was open to the eye of
Jesus. There was Mount Moriah, where the son of promise, an unresisting
victim, had been bound to the altar,--emblem of the offering of the Son of
God.(5) There, the covenant of blessing, the glorious Messianic promise,
had been confirmed to the father of the faithful. There, the flames of the
sacrifice ascending to heaven from the threshing-floor of Ornan had turned
aside the sword of the destroying angel(6)--fitting symbol of the Saviour's
sacrifice and mediation for guilty men. Jerusalem had been honored of God
above all the earth. The Lord had "chosen Zion," He had "desired it for
His habitation."(7) There, for ages, holy prophets had uttered their
messages of warning. There, priests had waved their censers, and the cloud
of incense, with the prayers of the worshipers, had ascended before God.
There, daily the blood of slain lambs had been offered, pointing forward
to the Lamb of God. There, Jehovah had revealed His presence in the cloud
of glory above the mercy-seat. There, rested the base of that mystic
ladder connecting earth with heaven,(8)--that ladder upon which angels of
God descended and ascended, and which opened to the world the way into the
holiest of all. Had Israel as a nation preserved her allegiance to Heaven,
Jerusalem would have stood forever, the elect of God.(9) But the history
of that favored people was a record of backsliding and rebellion. They had
resisted Heaven's grace, abused their privileges, and slighted their
opportunities.

Although Israel had "mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words,
and misused His prophets,"(10) He had still manifested Himself to them, as
"the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in
goodness and truth;"(11) notwithsta