nity and kindness, that
the same God, whose name and memorial is "merciful and gracious," has
solemnly added that "He can by no means clear the guilty." He would have
us to remember that there is a point beyond which even _His_ love cannot
go, when the voice of ineffable _Goodness_ must melt and merge into
tones of stern wrath and vengeance. The guilty may, for the brief
earthly hour of their impenitence, affect to despise His divine
warnings, laugh to scorn His solemn expostulations. Sentence may not be
executed speedily; amazing patience may ward off the descending blow.
They may, from the very _forbearance_ of Jesus, take impious
encouragement to defy His threats, and rush swifter to their own
destruction. But come He _will_ and _must_ to assert His claims as "He
that is HOLY, He that is TRUE." The disciples, on the present occasion,
heard the voice of their Master. They gazed on the doomed Fig-tree, but
there seemed at the moment to be no visible change on its leaves. As
they took their final glance ere passing on their way, no blight seemed
to descend, no worm to prey on its roots. The fowls of Heaven may have
appeared soaring in the sky, eager to nestle as before on its branches,
and to bathe their plumage on the dew-drops that drenched its foliage.
But was the word of Jesus in vain? Did that fig-tree take up a
responsive parable, and say, "Who made Thee a ruler and a judge over
me?"

The Lord and His apostles passed the place a few hours afterwards on
their return to Bethany.[36] But though the Passover moon was shining on
their path, the darkness, and perhaps the distance from the highway,
veiled from their view the too truthful doom to be revealed in morning
light. As the dawn of day (Tuesday) finds them once more on their road
to Jerusalem, the eyes of the disciples wander towards the spot to see
whether the words of yesterday have proved to be indeed solemn verities.
One glance is enough! _There_ it stands in impressive memorial. One
night had done the work. No desert simoom, if it had passed over it,
could have effected it more thoroughly. Its leaves were shrivelled, its
sap dried, its glory gone. Ever and anon afterwards, as the disciples
crossed the mountain, and as they gazed on this silent "preacher," they
would be reminded that Jehovah-Jesus, their loving Master, was not "a
man that He should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent."

Ah! Reader, learn from all this, that the wrathful utterances