enforced by the parables of The Wise and Evil Servants, The Ten Virgins, and The Talents, which three parables end the series, making about thirty in all. 130 The discourse closes with a parabolic description of the last judgment. The sublimity of the scene surpasses imagination. Christ appears in glory attended by the holy angels. On the throne of his glory he exercises full judicial authority as King of the Universe. Great infinities crowd upon our thought; infinite majesty in the celestial tribunal, infinite power in the resurrection and assembling of all the nations, infinite wisdom in the separation of the evil from the good, infinite justice in the judgment, for those infinite punishment, for these eternal life. And these infinities contrast with infinitesimal acts, feeding the hungry and visiting the sick, which give occasion and direction to the infinities. Imagination, failing to traverse such celestial diameters, sinks fainting into the arms of faith. XXVI THE PRELUDE HE close of the great prophecy, depicting the parousia with dazzling splendor, and affirming that the rejected kingship shall yet be realized, terminates the mission of Jesus to the house of Israel as teacher and reformer, as Prophet revealing God's will and purpose. Heretofore his public life has been one of incessant action; the remainder is to be preeminently a passion. True he has been a constant sufferer, through sympathy, by contradiction, and in anticipation of his appointed hour. But now above all he shall suffer the hiding of his Father's face, and become a curse for us. Heretofore he has avoided or contended with his enemies; henceforth he does neither, but willingly descends into the valley of humiliation, and is submissive and dumb as a sheep before her shearers. For he now assumes his second office, and as High Priest will offer once for all the great mediatorial sacrifice. Here all the radii of history meet. Let us put off our shoes from our feet, for we are about to enter the inner sanctuary of time. The sun beyond Jerusalem is setting. The city with its temple is shrouded in gloom. Jesus and his four disciples are silently gazing on the vision of things to come. With sunset, by Jewish count, another day begins. In its beginning, Jesus withdraws his gaze from the remote future, and fixes it on that near at hand. Still moved by the spirit of prophecy, he tells the awed apostles of his impending passion. Twice already he has foretold its circumstances; now he gives the date. "Ye know that after two days the Passover cometh, and the Son of man is delivered up to be crucified." 131 These few, sublimely simple words constitute the prologue to the last act of the tragedy for which the world was built as a stage, and designate the epoch from which eternity counts its fore and after æons. While Jesus and his companions were going in the deepening twilight on to Bethany for the night, Satan in Jerusalem was actively assembling his acolytes to conspire against him. The complete and disgraceful defeat of their several assaults during the past day exasperated him and them to desperation. So, after sunset, there was a caucus of the leading Sanhedrists in the open court of the palace of the high priest Caiaphas. This palace was situated west of the Temple just across the Tyropcon valley which ran from north to south between the temple mount and the city on Mount Zion. Its court was afterwards the scene of Peter's denial. Jesus had just foretold his death with calm certainty; his adversaries with feverish uncertainty were now consulting how they might take him by subtilty and kill him. They dared not proceed openly, for they feared the people lest there should be an uproar. The Jews were easily inflamed, were very turbulent and violent, so that the fears of the Sanhedrists were not idle fears. Therefore they would resort to subtle craft; but unable to devise a feasible plan, they finally decided to postpone the attempt until after Passover, when the departing of the multitudes would restore their usual power. The |