ed, a surprising demonstration. It would hardly have been
credited, had it not there been made manifest, that Jesus had so strong
a hold upon any section of the population of Jerusalem. In the capital
He had always found the soil very unreceptive. Jerusalem was the
headquarters of rabbinic learning and priestly arrogance--the home of
the Pharisee and the Sadducee, who guided public opinion; and there,
from first to last, He had made few adherents. It was in the
provinces, especially in Galilee, that He had been the idol of the
populace. It was by the Galilean pilgrims to the Passover that He was
convoyed into the capital with shouts of Hosanna; but the inhabitants
of the city stood coldly aloof, and before Pilate's judgment-seat they
cried out, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!"

Yet now it turns out that He has touched the heart of one section at
least even of this community: "There followed Him a great company of
people and of women, which[1] also bewailed and lamented Him." Some
have considered this so extraordinary that they have held these women
to be Galileans; but Jesus addressed them as "daughters of Jerusalem."
The Galilean men who had surrounded Him in His hour of triumph put in
no appearance now in His hour of despair; but the women of Jerusalem
broke away from the example of the men and paid the tribute of tears to
His youth, character and sufferings. It is said that there was a
Jewish law forbidding the showing of any sympathy to a condemned man;
but, if so, this demonstration was all the more creditable to those who
took part in it. The upwelling of their emotion was too sincere to be
dammed back by barriers of law and custom.

It is said there is no instance in the Gospels of a woman being an
enemy of Jesus. No woman deserted or betrayed, persecuted or opposed
Him. But women followed Him, they ministered to Him of their
substance, they washed His feet with tears, they anointed His head with
spikenard; and now, when their husbands and brothers were hounding Him
to death, they accompanied Him with weeping and wailing to the scene of
martyrdom.[2]

It is a great testimony to the character of Christ on the one hand and
to that of woman on the other. Woman's instinct told her, however
dimly she at first apprehended the truth, that this was the Deliverer
for her. Because, while Christ is the Saviour of all, He has been
specially the Saviour of woman. At His advent, her degradation being
far deeper than