LECTURE LII.

GREAT CALAMITIES NOT ALWAYS PROOFS OF GUILT.

ST LUKE xiii. 1-9.

CONTENTS-Prejudice respecting violent deaths-Not always to be deemed judgments of God.-Jesus declared unless his hearers repented, they should also perish.-In allusion to the destruction of Jerusalem, parable of the fig-tree.-Happy illustration of the Jews, who misimproved their advantages, and rejected the Son of God-Yet a respite of forty years granted-While divine knowledge and miracles continued, they become incorrigible-Therefore goodness as well as justice condemned them.-The destruction of the Jews terrible-A warning to Christians.

THOUGH the Gospel by St Luke contains many important additions to the history of our Saviour's ministry, yet, as was formerly observed, it does not pay so much regard as the other Gospels to the order of time, or the circumstance of place. Thus we are not informed at what time, or at what place, the observations contained in this chapter were made, though we may consider ourselves entitled, from the twenty-second verse, to conclude that they did not take place at Jerusalem.

On some particular occasion Jesus was told that Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator, had put to death some Galileans, while they were employed in

offering sacrifice. But as this transaction has not been recorded in history, we are entirely ignorant of the causes which led to it, as well as of the circumstances with which it was attended. The omission is however of no consequence; for the fact is merely alluded to, because our Saviour, as on similar occasions, meant to apply it solely to useful instruction. It was probably intended as a complaint against Pontius Pilate for injustice and cruelty, with the expectation that Jesus would give an unfavourable opinion. But he never sat in judgment on persons in authority, nor interfered in matters which belonged to the jurisdiction of courts of justice. When requested to decide in a case of property, he replied, “Who made me a judge or an arbiter?" Of course, we may conclude he did not approve of the opinion that every man is entitled to pass sentence on the conduct of persons in authority.

Jesus took the opportunity of correcting a prejudice which has prevailed in every age and nation. When extraordinary calamities befall individuals, such as great losses, sudden or violent deaths, it has been common to consider such misfortunes as proofs of great criminality, and therefore judgments from Heaven. Our Saviour condemned this opinion: "Think ye that those Galileans were the greatest sinners in all Galilee, because they suffered such things? I tell you, nay; but unless ye repent (or reform), ye shall all likewise perish." He then mentions a case of a different kind, of persons crushed to death by the fall of a building: "Or those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew; think ye that they

were the greatest profligates in all Jerusalem? I you, nay; but unless ye reform ye shall likewise perish."

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Now, as it was an untimely or violent death of which our Saviour had been speaking, must we not conclude, when he said, unless they repented they should perish in like manner, that he meant to warn them that without reformation they should be subjected to a similar untimely fate?

But it may be said, is not reformation inculcated in Scripture as necessary to preserve us from future misery, rather than from sudden death? It is true. But in the case to which our Saviour refers-the destruction of Jerusalem-that reformation which conducted to Christianity was to be the means of preserving those who became converts from being involved in the perils of that terrible event. For while the unconverted, irreclaimable Jews, were to undergo the most shocking sufferings, and a great proportion of them to be exposed to a violent death, the Christians, warned by the prophecy and exhortation of their divine Master, were enabled to make a timely escape. Our Saviour therefore recommended reformation to all, while he denounced fearful punishment against hardened trangressors.

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Verse 8. "He also spake this parable. A man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard, and came seeking fruit on it, but found none. Then he said to the vine-dresser, This is the third year that I have come seeking fruit on this fig-tree without finding any. Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? He answered, Sir, let it alone one year longer, until I dig

about it and dung it; perhaps it will bear fruit. If not, thou mayest afterwards cut it down.”

Our Saviour, on all occasions, employed the happiest illustrations. They are familiar, simple, and interesting, and shew clearly the meaning of his precepts and exhortations. The similitude of a fig-tree planted in a vineyard, to the Jewish nation, settled in the fertile region of Canaan, is fitly chosen. The Jews were placed there in the most favourable circumstances for improvement. They had received a law from Heaven, prophets had been often commissioned to direct them, and when they rebelled, to recall them to their duty. But they continued a headstrong and intractable people. Even till the Babylonish captivity-a period of nine hundred years from the time they left Egypt-they often forsook the worship of the only living and true God, and fell into polytheism and idolatry. After that period they passed into the other extreme; for, while they renounced these national crimes, they added to the law of Moses a multitude of trifling, useless, and pernicious observances, which they called the traditions of the elders, and lost all fear of God, all sense of religion and moral feelings. God therefore decreed that they should be banished from the land which he had entailed on their nation, though only while they continued to serve and obey Him.

Still, however, before this decree was carried into execution, He gave them the most favourable opportunity of returning to their duty. He sent His wellbeloved Son to offer them, if they would reform, par

don for their guilt, and higher privileges and blessings than they had ever enjoyed. But they stubbornly and madly rejected him, decried his wonderful miracles, disregarded his divine instructions, slandered his benevolent actions, conspired against him and put him to an infamous death. Even then, such was the astonishing forbearance of God, He did not immediately inflict the punishment they deserved. He granted a respite of forty years, that all the honest and candid, all who would listen to the voice of instruction, might be saved; and particularly that the rising generation might not, without ample warning, be involved in the fate of their degenerate fathers. During this long period, new means were employed for enlightening, and convincing, and reforming them-means more numerous and more ample than those exhibited by himself, according to the promise of our Saviour to his apostles: "Greater things than these shall ye do, because I go to my Father." For immediately after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, not only the apostles, but prophets, and evangelists, and teachers appeared in great numbers, performing miracles in the name of their great Master, displaying extraordinary knowledge, which human genius and study could never have acquired, speaking all the languages of the Roman empire, and, what was the most remarkable of all, they saw the apostles, by prayer and imposition of hands, imparting these supernatural gifts to others.

When we reflect upon these things, we are struck