Jerusalem, 40 years later, when not a Christian perished, but more than a million of Jews were slain. But that destruction was but one example of the ruin which must follow a life of sin.

A UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE is stated in v. 26. Unto every one which hath, occupies, takes possession of by faithfully using, shall be given. This is the only way of progress, step by step, each higher step being gained by means of the previous step. You cannot enter the high school without being faithful in the grammar school studies. You cannot be successful in business, or in any trade, without faithfulness in learning the trade or business. Put a savage in a library full of books, and he cannot gain knowledge; or in a carpenter shop crammed full of tools, and he cannot build a house. There is no escape from this law.

SECOND THE MAN OF ONE TALENT. HIS POSSIBILITIES. The man of one talent need not be a failure. If he is faithful, he can multiply his talent as certainly as the man of two talents or five. The Parable of the Pounds teaches this fact clearly, for the man that kept his $16 of silver in a napkin had just as much to begin with as the man who made his $16 into $160, and by doing it became fitted to rule ten cities.

1 pound x 10-10 cities. | 5 talents+faithfulness=10 talents=power over many things. 1 pound x 0= 0. 5 talents+neglect O, nothing but loss.

=

"It seems very certain that the world is to grow richer and better in the future, however it has been in the past, not by the magnificent achievements of the highly gifted few, but by the patient faithfulness of the one-talented many.". Phillips Brooks.

The one-talented or two-talented man has a great chance in the world. Being an average man he can sympathize with average men, and his success and usefulness show themselves as possible to the majority. Small talents with will and purpose can accomplish great things. There is no limit to their final achievement.

"The wise and true

Crave not the lofty tasks, but turn the small

To greatness by the great heart doing all for God."-Jean Ingelow.

"A little man with a great gospel is mightier than a great man with a little gospel." The gospel is the same mighty wisdom and power of God, no matter who uses its power. See 1 Cor. 1:18-29.

LESSON V.-August 2.

THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY. - Mark II: I-II.

GOLDEN TEXT.- Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee. - ZECH. 9:9.

THE TEACHER'S LIBRARY. Harper's Classical Dictionary for an account of Roman Triumphal Processions. Stanley's Sinai and Palestine has a beautiful description of a triumphal procession. See any good Roman history for the story of Pompey's triumph, and Cæsar's. See Robinson's Researches, I., 473, for modern illustration of spreading garments in the way for those the people would honor. Land and Book, new ed., Vol. I., pp. 408-414.

THE LESSON IN LITERATURE. Gen. Lew Wallace's Ben Hur gives a vivid description of the scenes and circumstances of this period of Christ's life. Robert Browning's Poems, "The Patriot," "It was roses, roses all the way"; Theron Brown's Hymn, "The Banner of Immanuel," can be found in Select Songs, No. 1 (Bigelow and Main); Tissot's Life of Our Lord Jesus has a number of brilliant and realistic pictures of these scenes, reproduced in colors from his series of paintings with the text

Vs. 9, 10; Luke 19:41, 42; Matt. 21:15 and descriptions; Keble's Christian Year, (middle portion).

THE ROUND TABLE.

FOR RESEARCH AND DISCUSSION.
The purpose of this mode of entering Jerusalem.
What effect would it have on the people?
What had Jesus done that was kingly?

To what extent has Jesus been marching victoriously
down the ages?

The value of enthusiasm, and of those things that

awaken it.

A vision of his final triumph.

The children's Hosannas.

How should we keep Palm Sunday?

"Christ weeping over Jerusalem "; N. P. Willis' Poems, Christ's Entry into Jerusa

lem."

66

THE LESSON IN ART.

The Triumphal Entry, Deger,* Plockhörst* (one of the best), Giotto (Padua), Doré (a great painting), Dürer, in the Little Passion, Bida. Christ Weeping over Jerusalem, Eastlake.*

NOTE. The text of this lesson is printed all together on this page, in order that one complete story, arranged from the four Gospels, may pass before us in a moving panorama of living pictures of real events taking place before our eyes.

MARK 11:1-11; MATT. 21: 1-11; LUKE 19:29-34; JOHN 12: 17-19.

1

2

When they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and MARK 11:1. Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sendeth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, "Go your way into the village that is over against you: and straightway as ye enter into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon no man ever yet sat; loose him, and bring him. And if any one say unto you, 'Why do ye this?' say ye, 'The Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him back hither."'"

Now this is come to pass, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken through the prophet, saying,

3

MATT.

"Tell ye the daughter of Zion,

Behold, thy King cometh unto thee,
Meek, and riding upon an ass,

And upon a colt the foal of an ass."

And they went away, and found a colt tied at the door without in the open street: and they loose him. And certain of them that stood there said unto them, "What do ye, loosing the colt ?" And they said unto them even as Jesus had said: and they let them go. And they bring the colt unto Jesus, and cast on him their garments; and he sat upon him. And the most part of the multitude spread their garments upon the way; and others branches, which they had cut from the fields.

And as he was drawing nigh, even at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen.

MARK

4

5

6

7

8

LUKE

MARK

9

JOHN

And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, "Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Blessed is the kingdom that cometh, 10 the kingdom of our father David: Hosanna in the highest." The multitude, therefore, that was with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, bare witness. For this cause also the multitude went and met him, for that they heard that he had done this sign.

And some of the Pharisees from the multitude said unto LUKE him, "Teacher, rebuke thy disciples."

And he answered and said, "I tell you that, if these shall

hold their peace, the stones will cry out."

And when he drew nigh, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If thou hadst known in this day, even thou, the things which belong unto peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall cast up a bank about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall dash thee to the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation."

And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city

was stirred, saying, "Who is this?"

And the multitude said, "This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee."

MATT.

The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, "Behold, JOHN how ye prevail nothing; lo, the world is gone after him." And he entered into Jerusalem, into the temple; and when he had looked round about upon all things,

it being now eventide, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.

MARK

11

SCENE I. Sunday morning. Near the villages on the summit of Mount Olivet, the suburbs of Jerusalem, much of it an open park or pleasure-ground for the city. Jesus and his disciples, gathering crowds of pilgrims.

Preparations for the Public Announcement of Jesus as the Messiah King, vs. 1-7. And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage. This is a condensed statement, meaning that on his journey from Jericho Jesus had arrived as near his journey's end at Jerusalem, as Bethphage (house of figs, or fig-town), a small village not far from Bethany (house of dates) which was a village nearly two miles east from Jerusalem, the home of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. They were on the eastern slope of the mount of Olives, so called from the ample orchards of olive trees upon it. "It was their open ground for pleasure, for worship; the Park' of Jerusalem; the thoroughfare of any going or coming in the direction of the great Jordan valley.". Stanley.

Mark omits a number of events recorded in the other gospels, the arrival at Bethany, probably on Friday, the entertainment at the home of Lazarus and his sisters, and the supper on Saturday evening just after the close of the Jewish Sabbath day at sunset, and the anointing of Jesus by Mary. In his account we find Jesus early the next morning, our Sunday, sending forth two of his disciples to make arrangements for his royal entry into Jerusalem.

"This

2. Go your way into the village over against you, in sight across the ravine around which the regular road ran. Ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat. was probably, in their

eyes, significant, as showing that he who used the colt did so in his own right, and not as filling a place which others had filled before him."-Plumptre. Matthew tells us that the mother of the colt was with it. Jesus rode on the colt, and the mother accompanied it, because an untrained colt could be more easily led and ridden with its mother near it.

The colt was tied near the owner's house, in a place where two ways met, making an open square, and the disciples finding the colt there, began to loose him and lead him away, when certain of them that

stood there interfered and said, What do ye, loosing the colt? They replied, as Jesus had bidden them, The Lord hath need of him; Jesus, or, as we often say, God, needs him for his service. Let us take him for the good of the cause. To this they added that they would as soon as possible return the colt to the owners; for in the clause And straightway he will send him hither, "hither" refers to the place whence they were taking the colt, not to Bethany. This is made clear in the Revision which reads, he (Jesus) "straightway will send him back hither."

7. And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him: "instead of a saddle, as is frequently done by the rider himself to-day; but for the people of the company to do it was an act of high and honorable regard.".

Professor Hall.

NOTE. Matthew adds that this was done in fulfilment of a prophecy, which he reports from Isaiah 62: 11, and Zech. 9:9. (See the text on p. 219.)

The expression of the evangelist That it might be fulfilled, "points to the fulfilment of a divine providential purpose, not to the purpose of the prophet. Nor does it imply a

conscious purpose in those active in the fulfilment." The words were familiar to the Jews, who therefore expected that their Messiah would enter Jerusalem riding on an ass. Jesus by fulfilling this prophecy presented himself as the Messiah, the long-expected Deliverer King.

NOTE. Riding on an ass instead of a horse presented him as the PRINCE OF PEACE, not a hero of war. The horse was used especially for war, for dignity, and for display; the ass for the common uses of peace. His kingdom will be one of peace through righteousness.

NOTE. "The rich man's ass is a lordly beast. In size he is far ahead of anything of this kind we see here at home. His coat is as smooth and glossy as a horse's. His livery is shiny black, satiny white, or sleek mouse color.". Zincke's Egypt. But "the ass is the common beast for everybody to ride, and has been so from the days of the patriarchs and prophets." "It marked the Prince as not above the people in his manner and ordering of earthly state." - Prof. Isaac H. Hall. He had the true kingly spirit,

pure, noble, holy; a spirit, not of pride, but of lowliness; not of exultation, but of daily service and helpfulness; sanctifying and exalting common things; not afar off in seclusion, but near the people; a king full of compassion, "the King of Love." NOTE. "This colt was borrowed. Christ went upon the water in a borrowed boat, ate the Passover in a borrowed chamber, was buried in a borrowed sepulchre, and here rode on a borrowed ass.' Matthew Henry. But he blessed and transfigured them all, returning them a hundredfold better than when he took them. This is the only known instance on which Jesus rode.

SCENE II. The Eastern slopes of Olivet, Jerusalem not yet visible. The highway from Jericho to the city crowded with men and women walking from Galilee and Perea to celebrate the Passover. Jesus riding on the colt, accompanied by his disciples as escort, joins the moving procession.

The Triumphal Procession of the Prince of Peace. A Royal Welcome. A Hallelujah Chorus, vs. 8-10.

THE CROWDS. Ánd many, Matthew (R. V.) says "the most part of the multitude," spread their garments in the way. It was near the Passover time, and great multitudes from Galilee and Perea, and many foreign Jews from every quarter, - from Babylon, Arabia, Egypt; from Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy; probably even from Gaul and Spain," both men and women in gay Oriental colors were thronging the road that led across the fords of the Jordan through Jericho and up the steep ascent over Olivet towards Jerusalem. By a census taken at the time of Nero, it was ascertained that there were 2,700,000 Jews present at the Passover. Being visitors, they would nave abundant leisure for any procession or excitement. From verse 9, and John 12:12 we learn that there were two streams of people, for when the Galileans and other visitors who had already reached the city heard the shouts and hallelujahs on Olivet, they streamed out to meet the incoming procession, and joined them on the inward march. So that from Bethany to Jerusalem there was one thronging mass of people.

STREWING THE WAY WITH GARMENTS AND PALM BRANCHES. The garments were their outer abbas, loose blankets or cloaks, worn over the tunic or shirt. These acts were somewhat on the principle that actuated the heart of young Sir Walter Raleigh, when, on Queen Elizabeth coming to a miry part of the road, and hesitating for an instant how to step across, he "took off his new plush mantle, and spread it on the ground. Her majesty trod gently over the fair foot-cloth."— Morison.

And others. branches. "The Greek word is used for any layer of leaves, twigs, bushes, and the like, used for bedding, or to make a road easy to travel." Which they had cut from the fields by the roadside. John adds "branches of the palm trees." Hence the anniversary of this event is called Palm Sunday. All this was a royal honor to the king.

"Herodotus records that when Xerxes was passing over the bridge of the Hellespont, the way before him was strewed with branches of myrtle, while burning perfumes filled the air. Quintius Curtius tells of the scattering of flowers in the way before Alexander the Great when he entered Babylon."

The Palestine explorer Frederick J. Bliss was present one Palm Sunday in 1898, which he says must have been very like the one described in the Gospels. As the procession approaches, the crowd grows immense. Sturdy fellaheen, women in colored sheets, dark-faced Bedouin, Jews in gay holiday attire, white-helmeted tourists, sellers of sweets and lemonade, Turkish soldiers, Russian peasants, ecclesiastics of all sorts, mingle in an ever-changing kaleidoscopic pattern.