The miracles of Jesus were generally miracles of mercy. There are a few exceptions. Conspicuous amongst these is the withering of the fig tree with a word. When the disciples marvelled Jesus expounded to them his astonishing doctrine of the power of faith. We learn -

I. THAT BELIEVING IS ESSENTIAL TO PREVAILING PRAYER.

1. There can be no prayer without faith in a personal God.

(1) The atheist cannot pray. The reason is obvious. He has no God to pray to. His is a melancholy orphanage.

(2) The pantheist cannot pray. His god is an infinite It, unsusceptible to prayer. "He that cometh to God must believe that he is" (Hebrews 11:6).

(3) The Christian can pray. He believes in a personal God, who created us after his image. As a man can intelligently speak to his friend, so, etc. (see Exodus 33:11).

2. There can be no prayer without faith in a Person susceptible to human appeals.

(1) The deist cannot pray. His god is too far removed from his works to notice the specks upon a tiny planet.

(2) The Christian can pray. For he has loftier views of God. He is so great that nothing can escape him. While he rules firmaments of suns and systems of worlds, he feeds the animalculae.

(3) The Christian, moreover, is encouraged to pray by his faith in the mediation of Christ. Without such mediation the sinner might shrink from approaching the infinitely Holy. In it mercy in harmony with justice is assured.

3. Faith is active in successful prayer.

(1) The power of faith is like that of water, impotent in quiescence, but efficient when in motion. It is like heat, impotent when latent, but whose energy when molecules are in motion is tremendous.

(2) It is the active faith of saints that alarms Satan. It stirs three worlds, viz. heaven, earth, and hell.

II. THAT BELIEVING PRAYER IS INFALLIBLY EFFECTIVE.

1. Because God has pledged himself to it.

(1) He is able to do whatever he will. The power of the Promiser was exemplified in the withering of the fig tree. The moral is drawn from this example: "If ye have faith, and doubt not," etc. (vers. 21, 22).

(2) He is willing to do whatever he promises. He cannot deny himself. "Heaven and earth may pass away." The Creator may reverse his act of creation. But the Uncreate cannot annihilate himself. But to falsify would be to annihilate Infinite Truth.

2. But how is the infallible effectiveness of believing prayer reconciled with the wisdom of God?

(1) If omnipotence is pledged to faith, may not omnipotence be put into commission to folly; for man is confessedly fallible?

(2) Faith, in the nature of the case, presupposes a promise. Where has the God of wisdom promised a foolish thing?

(3) But is there not here an open cheque: "All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive"? The particular promise is still implied in the term "believing;" for faith itself is the gift of God. The God of wisdom cannot inspire faith in the interests of folly.

3. But how can efficacy in prayer comport with the uniformity of nature's processes?

(1) So undeviating is the order in the revolutions of the spheres that eclipses, occultations, conjunctions, epacts, and other matters may be calculated with certainty. In like manner, chemical changes never vary when the conditions are the same. Can prayer disturb these things?

(2) Who wants it to do so? There is no need to disturb matter when prayer is made for spiritual blessings. What relation is there to eclipses and epacts in answering the cry for mercy? A whole millennium of spiritual glory may flood this earth in answer to prayer, without touching the properties of a molecule of matter.

(3) But how does the argument stand in relation to providence? There is a sphere in nature for human providence. The farmer does not violate the order of nature when he grows corn in response to the cry of a nation for food. By draining and tillage he can alter the climate of his country and alter its flora and fauna, and all this without altering the properties of a single molecule of matter. In like manner, on a far grander scale, God also has reserved to himself a sphere for his providence in nature, within which he can answer every prayer he pleases to inspire.

III. THAT PRAYER FAILS THROUGH THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS INIMICAL TO ACTIVE FAITH.

1. As when the matter of the suit is unwise.

(1) "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss" (James 4:3). In such a case God will in mercy withhold his gift of faith.

(2) Or he may honour the sincerity of the prayer by conferring an equivalent to that which his grace withholds. So he dealt with Paul when he sought the removal of his "thorn in the flesh."

(3) Honest prayer is never vain. Its very exercise ennobles. As the domestic animal is ennobled by his conversation with man, infinitely more is man ennobled by conversing with his Maker.

2. As when the motive is unworthy of the suit.

(1) Is our prayer for business prosperity? But is the motive good? Else the answer may come in anger. To how many is the accession of material wealth the wasting of the infinitely more precious moral properties!

(2) Is our prayer for the spiritual conversion of a child? The end here is undoubtedly good. But what is the motive? Is it that his consequent dutifulness may increase the comfort of the home, rather than bring glory to God and save a soul from death? Feather the arrows of prayer with the very best motives.

3. As when the disposition of the suppliant is inconsistent with sincerity.

(1) Such is the case when the lazy pray for a revival. Work for it while you pray.

(2) When the impenitent seek salvation. This is like a rebel suing to his sovereign for pardon with a leaded revolver in his hand. The salvation of the gospel is a salvation from sin. Repentance is therefore indispensible (see Psalm 66:18; Isaiah 1:15-20; Matthew 5:23-26). There is no mercy for the implacable (see Matthew 6:12-15). - J.A.M.

I. THE DESTRUCTION OF THIS TREE WAS NOT AN ACT OF INJUSTICE. People find it difficult to understand the propriety of punishing an inanimate object for defects which are only possible in higher existences. They argue that, since the fig-tree did not possess freewill, but was simply obeying the law of its kind, our Lord's act was capricious. But observe —

1. The supposed force of this objection is due to our treating a metaphorical expression as if it were the language of reality. We speak of "doing justice" to a picture, when we mean justice to the artist who painted it. The picture itself cannot possibly be treated justly or unjustly, although we may form a true or a false estimate of its merits. Justice and injustice pre-suppose rights to be respected or violated; and rights belong only to a person. In the vegetable world there is no such thing as personality: and no such thing as "rights." To talk, therefore, of "injustice" in blasting or cutting down a tree, is good English if we are in the realms of poetry, but nonsense if in those of moral truth. The tree is there to be made the most of by man. .No one has yet maintained that in using it to furnish our houses, or-brighten our hearths, we sin against any law of natural justice. Surely, then, if by its sudden destruction the tree can do more, much more, than minister to our bodily comfort — if in its way it can be made to teach us a moral lesson of the first importance — there is no room for any question of injustice. What is merely material must always be subordinated to the moral and spiritual; and if a tree can be made, by its destruction, to illustrate a moral or spiritual truth, a high honour is put upon it, a noble work given it to do.

II. THERE WAS NO UNUSUAL SEVERITY IN THIS ACT. The truest mercy always sacrifices the lower to the higher. It is not more cruel to destroy a plant in order to teach a great moral truth, than to destroy a plant in order to eat it. If by its destruction the plant does our soul a service there is quite as good a reason for putting it to some sort of distress, in the process of destroying it, as there is if it is wanted to support our bodies.

(Canon Liddon.)

This incident is, from first to last, an acted parable. It would, perhaps, be truer to say, that it is an acted prophecy. In the East action was, and still is, often a more vivid and effective way of communicating truth than language. When a prophet of Israel sat in sackcloth, with dust on his head, by the side of the road along which the royal chariot would pass, his action was a much more powerful rebuke to the monarch for neglect of duty than a sermon would have been — even though it had an introduction, three arguments, and a conclusion. The East. as I have said, is traditionally the home of eloquent action; but in all countries and ages-human action is a kind of human language, and it is often much more impressive than words which fall upon the ear. In our intercourse with each other, and in our worship of God, action expresses thought and feeling in a condensed way which often could only be put into very cumbrous and awkward language; and our Lord on this occasion was teaching — teaching in the main by action. He was acting a parable, and no objection can be urged against His action to which teaching by parable — that is to say, by putting forward an imaginary story as if it were literally true — is not always open. What, then, was the lesson which on this occasion He desired to teach? Was it simply the shame and guilt in every responsible creature of God's hand, of moral unfruitfulness? Did He cause the tree to wither because it was the symbol of nations and of men who do nothing for His glory and nothing for their fellows? That He does punish such unfruitfulness is certain: but this is not the lesson He would teach us here. The time of figs was not yet. To use figurative language, the tree did net sin by not producing figs at a time of the year when they could only have been produced in the open air by what we call a freak of nature, or, rather, in despite of her ordinary rules. The tree was a symbol of that which, in man, is worse sin than a merely fruitless life. It had leaves, you will observe, though it had no fruit. That was the distinction of this particular tree among its fellows ranged along the road, with their bare, leafless, unpromising branches. They held out hopes of nothing beyond what met the eye. This tree, with its abundant leaves, gave promise of fruit that might be well-nigh ripe; and thus it was a symbol of moral or of religious pretentiousness. Not simply as unfruitful, but because, being unfruitful, it was covered with leaves, it was a fitting symbol of that want of correspondence between profession and practice — between claims and reality — between the surface appearances of life and its real direction and purpose — which our Lord condemned so often and so sternly in the men of His time. And, as representing this, it was condemned too.

(Canon Liddon.)

I. The fig-tree represented immediately, we cannot doubt, in our Lord's intention. THE ACTUAL STATE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE. The heathen nations, judged from a Divine point of view, were barren enough. Israel was barren also, but then Israel was also pretentious and false. Israel was covered with leaves. The letter of the law — the memories, the sepulchres of the prophets — the ancient sacrifices — the accredited teachers — all were in high consideration. Israel was, to all appearance, profoundly religious. But the searching eye of our Lord found no fruit upon this tree beneath the leaves — no true soul-controlling belief even in the promises of the Messiah, of which they made so much — no true sense of their obligation and of their incapacity to please God. The tree by the roadside was a visible symbol of the moral condition of Israel as it presented 'itself to the eye of Christ, and there was no longer any reason for suspending the judgment which had been foretold in the Saviour's parable: "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever." If humanity needed light, strength, peace, consolations, Israel could no longer give them. Israel was hereafter to be a blasted and withered tree on the wayside of history.

II. The parable applies with equal force TO NATIONS OR TO CHURCHES IN CHRISTENDOM WHICH MAKE GREAT PRETENSIONS AND DO LITTLE OR NOTHING OF REAL VALUE TO MANKIND. For a time the tree waves its leaves in the wind. It lives on, sustained by the traditional habits and reverence of ages. Men admire the symbol of so many blessings — of so much activity and life. There is nothing to raise a question as to the true state of the case. But, at His own time, Christ passes along the highway — passes to inquire and to judge: some unforeseen calamity, some public anxiety, some shock to general confidence, lifts the leaves of that tree and discovers its real fruitlessnes.

III. To EVERY INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN THIS PARABLE IS FULL OF WARNING. The religious activity of the human soul may be divided, roughly, into leaves and fruit — showy forms of religious activity and interest on the one side, and the direct produce of religious conviction on the other. It is much easier to grow leaves than to grow fruit; and many a man's life veils the absence of fruit by the abundance of leaves. To take an interest in religious questions and discussions is better than to be totally indifferent to them; but mere acquaintance with, and interest in, such proves nothing as to the condition of the conscience — the real tenor of the heart — the deepest movements of the inmost life — the soul's state before God and its prospects for eternity. An anxious question for all is, whether the foliage of our Christian life is the covering of fruit beneath that is ripening for heaven, or only a thing of precocious and unnatural growth which has drained away the tree's best sap before its time, and made good fruit almost impossible. No show of leaves, no fervour of language, no glow of feeling, no splendour of outward achievements for Christ's cause and kingdom, will compensate, in His sight, for the absence of the fruits of the spirit.

(Canon Liddon.)

This parable from history teaches us the worthlessness of religious promises that are never fulfilled, and the guilt of appearing to be fruit-bearers when the eye of God sees nothing but leaves. There is no sin in promises. Cherry-trees must issue their white and fragrant " promissory-notes" in May, or there would be no payment in delicious fruit at the end of the allotted sixty days. God makes precious promises to us; and a converted heart is only in the line of duty when it makes a solemn promise or covenant to the church and its head, Christ Jesus. There is no sin in a church-covenant honestly made. The sin is in breaking it. How full of leaves was the plausible fig-tree on the way to Bethany! How profuse of promises is many a young professor as he stands up laden with the foliage on which the dew-drops of hope are glistening! How much his pastor expects from him. He makes no reserve when he covenants to consecrate himself, all that he is, and all that he has, to the service of his Redeemer. For a time the glossy leaves of profession make a fair show. But when the novelty of the new position has worn off, and the times of reaction come, then the yoke begins to gall the conscience, and every religious duty becomes an irksome drudgery. The cross loses its charm; prayer loses its power; the Word of God ceases to attract; the very name of Jesus no longer possesses a charm; and church-membership has become a hateful mask, which its owner is ashamed to wear, and yet afraid to fling away. Before the world the fig-tree still bears leaves; but beneath them is utter barrenness.

(T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)

I. The doom of things which do not meet the wants of the time.

II. The terrific prospect of meeting a disappointed Christ.

III. The perfect dominion of the spiritual over the material.

IV. The vast possibilities of undoubting prayer.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

I. THE FIG-TREE FLOURISHING.

1. Its nature, not a common thistle, from which men do not think to gather figs (Matthew 7:16). But a fruit-bearing tree.

2. Its situation. By the wayside, provoking attention, and inviting inspection. Such human trees are often more anxious to be noticed than the really fruitful.

3. Its appearance. Covered with leaves. Therefore (ver. 19) fruit might be reasonably expected. It made a fair show and a bold promise. Do we in any wise resemble this tree?

II. THE FIG-TREE EXAMINED.

1. The Lord was hungry — He needed fruit. He needs our fruitfulness.

2. It was seasonable as respects the tree. It outrivalled and surpassed the rest in forwardness — ITS time of figs had come.

3. It was carefully conducted; not a casual and distant glance. He knew without going, but went to show His care and awaken thought.

III. THE FIG-TREE WITHERED.

1. Its leaves did not save it. Profession without reality there may be; but there will not long be reality without profession.

2. The Lord cursed it to show how hypocrisy deserves to be treated. By such the world is apt to be deceived, touching the nature of religion. Many have the form of godliness who deny the power. Their end is nigh.

3. Those who persevere in hypocrisy may be bereft of the power of producing fruit. Hypocritical and perfunctory habits destroy this power. Thus spiritual life withers away.Learn: —

1. To be thankful that we are fruit-trees, not thistles.

2. To be anxious to be fruitful fruit-trees (Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 5:9).

3. It is time for fruit directly the leaves begin to spring. With us NOW.

(J. C. Gray.)

Our Lord's work lay chiefly in the city; thither, therefore, He repairs betimes, and forgot, for haste, to take His breakfast, as it may seem, for ere He came to the city He was hungry, though it was but a step thither. A good man's heart is where his calling is: such an one. when he, is visiting friends or so, is like a fish in the air; whereunto if it leap for recreation or necessity, yet it soon returns to its own element.

(John Trapp.)

It is said of Rev. Dr. Franklin that he had a passion for fruitfulness. His signet-ring had, for a device, a fruit-bearing tree, with the motto from Psalm 1:3. And when near his end, being asked by his son and pastoral successor for some word of condensed wisdom to be treasured up as a remembrance and a prompter, he breathed into his ear the word, "Fruitful."

Thou, that givest food to all things living, art Thyself hungry. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, kept not so poor a house but that Thou mightest have eaten something at Bethany. Whether Thy haste outran Thine appetite, or whether on purpose Thou forbearest repast, to give opportunity to Thine ensuing miracle, I neither ask nor resolve. This was not the first time that Thou wast hungry. As Thou wouldst be a man, so Thou wouldst suffer those infirmities that belong to humanity. Thou earnest to be our High Priest; it was Thy act and intention, not only to intercede for Thy people, but to transfer unto Thyself, as their sins, so their weaknesses and complaints. But what shall we say to this Thine early hunger? The morning, as it is privileged from excess, so from need; the stomach is not wont to rise with the body. Surely, as Thy occasions were, no season was exempted from Thy want. Thou hadst spent the day before in the holy labour of Thy reformation: after a supperless departure, Thou spentest the night in prayer: no meal refreshed Thy toil. What do we think much, to forbear a morsel, or to break a sleep for Thee, who didst thus neglect Thyself for us?

(Bishop Hall.)

I. THE OCCURRENCE WHICH THE EVANGELIST DESCRIBES.

1. The Saviour's hunger.

2. The disappointment He met with.

3. The doom He pronounced.

II. THE COMMENT MADE UPON IT BY THE DISCIPLES. "How soon is the fig-tree withered away," etc.

1. When this exclamation was uttered.

2. The feeling with which it was uttered.

III. THE REPLY WHICH THIS REMARK CALLED FORTH FROM OUR LORD.

1. A wonderful assertion. "If ye have faith," etc.

2. An encouraging promise. "And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer," etc.

(Expository Outlines.)

It is no good sign when all the sap goes up the leaves, and is spent that way; nor in a Christian, when all his grace shoots up into woods, a verbal goodness; no reality at all.

(Adams.)

When the Interpreter had done, he takes them out into his garden again, and led them to a tree, whose inside was all rotten and gone, and yet it grew and had leaves. Then said Mercy, "What means this? This tree," said he, "whose outside is fair, and whose inside is rotten, is it to which many may be compared that are in the garden of God; who with their mouths speak high in behalf of God, but in deed will do nothing for Him; whose leaves are fair, but their heart good for nothing but to be tinder to the devil's tinder-box.

(Bunyan.)

Our profession without practice is but hypocritical, making us resemble the stony ground which brought forth a green blade, but no fruit to due maturity; like the fig-tree, which, having leaves but no figs, was accursed; like the tree in the garden, which. cumbering the ground with its fruitless presence, was threatened to be cut down; like glow-worms, which have some lustre but no heat — seeing such professors shine with some light of knowledge, but without all warmth of Christian charity.

(Downame.)

David, Jesus, JohnBethany, Bethphage, Galilee, Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Nazareth, ZionDesire, Early, Hungered, Hungry, Morning, Return, Returned, Returning, Town, Turning1. Jesus rides into Jerusalem upon a donkey
12. drives the buyers and sellers out of the temple;
17. curses the fig tree;
23. puts to silence the priests and elders,
28. and rebukes them by the parable of the two sons,
33. and the husbandmen who slew such as were sent to them.

Matthew 21:18

     2033   Christ, humanity
     5341   hunger
     7110   body of Christ

Matthew 21:18-19

     1670   symbols

Matthew 21:18-22

     1416   miracles, nature of
     2357   Christ, parables
     4440   fig-tree

Matthew 21:18-27

     2012   Christ, authority

The Stone of Stumbling
Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.'--MATT. xxi. 44. As Christ's ministry drew to its close, its severity and its gentleness both increased; its severity to the class to whom it was always severe, and its gentleness to the class from whom it never turned away. Side by side, through all His manifestation of Himself, there were the two aspects: 'He showed Himself froward' (if I may quote the word) to the self-righteous …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Coming of the King to his Palace
'And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, 2. Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto Me. 3. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. 4. All this was done, that it might he fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5. Tell ye …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The vineyard and Its Keepers
'Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: 34. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. 35. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. 36. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A New Kind of King
'All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass.'--MATT. xxi. 4, 5. Our Lord's entrance into Jerusalem is one of the comparatively few events which are recorded in all the four Gospels. Its singular unlikeness to the rest of His life, and its powerful influence in bringing about the Crucifixion, may account for its prominence in the narratives. It took place probably …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

June the Twenty-First Room for the Saplings
"Children crying in the temple, saying Hosanna!" --MATTHEW xxi. 1-16. Children's voices mingling in the sounds of holy praise! A little child can share in the consecrated life. Young hearts can offer love pure as a limpid spring. Their sympathy is as responsive as the most sensitive harp, and yields to the touch of the tenderest joy and grief. No wonder the Lord "called little children unto Him"! They were unto Him as gracious streams, and as flowers of the field. Let the loving Saviour have our …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Christ and the Unstable.
TEXT: MATT. xxi. 10-16. WE have lately seen from several examples that what is properly to be regarded as the suffering of the Saviour, that is, His pain on account of sin, and of the opposition which it offered to His divine work, did not begin merely with the time which, in a stricter sense, we indicate as His period of suffering, but accompanied Him from the beginning of His earthly life, and more especially during His public career. We shall consider this to-day more closely in connection with …
Friedrich Schleiermacher—Selected Sermons of Schleiermacher

On the Words of the Gospel, Matt. xxi. 19, Where Jesus Dried up the Fig-Tree; and on the Words, Luke xxiv. 28, Where He Made A
1. The lesson of the Holy Gospel which has just been read, has given us an alarming warning, lest we have leaves only, and have no fruit. That is, in few words, lest words be present and deeds be wanting. Very terrible! Who does not fear when in this lesson he sees with the eyes of the heart the withered tree, withered at that word being spoken to it, "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever"? [2949] Let the fear work amendment, and the amendment bring forth fruit. For without doubt, the …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

A Sermon to Open Neglecters and Nominal Followers of Religion
If the whole of us were thus divided into two camps, and we could say these have made a covenant with God by sacrifice, and those on the other hand are still enemies to God by wicked works, looking at the last class we might still feel it necessary by way of personal application to make a division among them; for although all unbelievers are alike unpardoned and unsaved, yet they are not alike in the circumstances of their case and the outward forms of their sins. Alike in being without Christ, they …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 13: 1867

Another Royal Procession
When our Lord was here on earth, he was a humble man before his foes, a weary man and full of woes, and only now and then did some glimpses of his native royalty burst forth from him; he had now and then a day in which his regal rights were assumed and his royal position was claimed. He is gone from us now as to his actual presence, but he is with us spiritually, and his spiritual presence here is not unlike what his bodily presence was in the days of his flesh. For the most part, the glory of his …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 18: 1872

The Withered Fig Tree
Flippant persons have spoken of the story before us in a very foolish manner. They have represented it as though our Lord, being hungered, thought only of his necessity, and, expecting to be refreshed by a few green figs went up to the tree in error. Finding no fruit upon the tree, it being a season when he had no right to expect that there would be any, he was vexed, and uttered a malediction against a tree, as though it had been a responsible agent. This view of the case results from the folly …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 35: 1889

Hosanna!
Assuredly, this honor paid to our Lord was passing strange; a gleam of sunlight in a day of clouds, a glimpse of summer-tide in a long and dreary winter. He that was, as a rule, "despised and rejected of men", was for the moment surrounded with the acclaim of the crowd. All men saluted him that day with their Hosannas, and the whole city was moved. It was a gala day for the disciples, and a sort of coronation day for their Lord. Why was the scene permitted? What was its meaning? The marvel is, that …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

Sermon for Palm Sunday
How a man ought in all His works to regard God alone, and purely to make Him his end without anything of his own, and shall freely and simply perform all these works for the glory of God only, and not seek his own, nor desire nor expect any reward. Wherewith he may do such works without any self-appropriation or reference to time and number, before or after, and without modes. How the Divine Word speaks and reveals itself in the soul, all in a lofty and subtile sense. Matt. xxi. 10-17.--"And when …
Susannah Winkworth—The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler

"Because the Carnal Mind is Enmity against God, for it is not Subject to the Law of God, Neither Indeed Can Be. "
Rom. viii. 7.--"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Unbelief is that which condemns the world. It involves in more condemnation than many other sins, not only because more universal, but especially because it shuts up men in their misery, and secludes them from the remedy that is brought to light in the gospel. By unbelief I mean, not only that careless neglect of Jesus Christ offered for salvation, but that which is the …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Prophecy.
PROPHECY. Isaiah iii. 13; liii. "Behold, my servant shall deal prudently; he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: so shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider. Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? …
William Paley—Evidences of Christianity

How to Work for God with Success.
Son, go work to-day in my vineyard.--MATT. xxi. 28. Compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.--LUKE xiv. 23. I am to speak of some needful qualifications for successful labor; and I say:-- First, that there are certain laws which govern success in the kingdom of grace as well as in the kingdom of nature, and you must study these laws, and adapt yourself to them. It would be in vain for the husbandman to scatter his seed over the unbroken ground or on pre-occupied soil. You must plough …
Catherine Booth—Godliness

Synopsis. --A Clearer Conception of Miracle Approached. --Works of Jesus once Reputed Miraculous not So Reputed Now
IV SYNOPSIS.--A clearer conception of miracle approached.--Works of Jesus once reputed miraculous not so reputed now, since not now transcending, as once, the existing range of knowledge and power.--This transfer of the miraculous to the natural likely to continue.--No hard and fast line between the miraculous and the non-miraculous.--Miracle a provisional word, its application narrowing in the enlarging mastery of the secrets of nature and life. At this point it seems possible to approach a clearer …
James Morris Whiton—Miracles and Supernatural Religion

Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.
(from Bethany to Jerusalem and Back, Sunday, April 2, a.d. 30.) ^A Matt. XXI. 1-12, 14-17; ^B Mark XI. 1-11; ^C Luke XIX. 29-44; ^D John XII. 12-19. ^c 29 And ^d 12 On the morrow [after the feast in the house of Simon the leper] ^c it came to pass, when he he drew nigh unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, ^a 1 And when they came nigh unto Jerusalem, and came unto Bethphage unto { ^b at} ^a the mount of Olives [The name, Bethphage, is said to mean house of figs, but the …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Barren Fig-Tree. Temple Cleansed.
(Road from Bethany and Jerusalem. Monday, April 4, a.d. 30.) ^A Matt. XXI. 18, 19, 12, 13; ^B Mark XI. 12-18; ^C Luke XIX. 45-48. ^b 12 And ^a 18 Now ^b on the morrow [on the Monday following the triumphal entry], ^a in the morning ^b when they were come out from Bethany, ^a as he returned to the city [Jerusalem], he hungered. [Breakfast with the Jews came late in the forenoon, and these closing days of our Lord's ministry were full of activity that did not have time to tarry at Bethany for it. Our …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Finding the Fig-Tree Withered.
(Road from Bethany to Jerusalem, Tuesday, April 4, a.d. 30.) ^A Matt. XXI. 20-22; ^B Mark XI. 19-25; ^C Luke XXI. 37, 38. ^c 37 And every day he was teaching in the temple [he was there Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, but he seems to have spent Wednesday and Thursday in Bethany]; and every night { ^b evening} he went forth out out of the city. ^c and lodged in the mount that is called Olivet. [As Bethany was on the Mount of Olives, this statement leaves us free to suppose that he spent his nights there, …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

In Reply to the Questions as to his Authority, Jesus Gives the Third Great Group of Parables.
(in the Court of the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, a.d. 30.) Subdivision A. Introduction ^A Matt. XXI. 23-27; ^B Mark XI. 27-33; ^C Luke XX. 1-8. ^c 1 And it came to pass, on one of the days, ^b they [Jesus and the disciples] come again to Jerusalem: ^a 23 And when he was come into the temple, ^b and as he was walking in the temple [The large outer court of the temple, known as the court of the Gentiles, was thronged during the feasts, and was no doubt the part selected by Jesus and his apostles when …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

In Reply to the Questions as to his Authority, Jesus Gives the Third Great Group of Parables.
(in the Court of the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, a.d. 30.) Subdivision C. Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen. ^A Matt. XXI. 33-46; ^B Mark XII. 1-12; ^C Luke XX. 9-19. ^b 1 And he began to speak unto them ^c the people [not the rulers] ^b in parables. { ^c this parable:} ^a 33 Hear another parable: There was a man that was a householder [this party represents God], who planted a vineyard [this represents the Hebrew nationality], and set a hedge about it, and digged a ^b pit for the ^a winepress in it …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The First Day in Passion-Week - Palm-Sunday - the Royal Entry into Jerusalem
At length the time of the end had come. Jesus was about to make Entry into Jerusalem as King: King of the Jews, as Heir of David's royal line, with all of symbolic, typic, and prophetic import attaching to it. Yet not as Israel after the flesh expected its Messiah was the Son of David to make triumphal entrance, but as deeply and significantly expressive of His Mission and Work, and as of old the rapt seer had beheld afar off the outlined picture of the Messiah-King: not in the proud triumph of war-conquests, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Second Day in Passion-Week - the Barren Fig-Tree - the Cleansing of the Temple - the Hosanna of the Children
How the King of Israel spent the night after the triumphal Entry into His City and Temple, we may venture reverently to infer. His royal banquet would be fellowship with the disciples. We know how often His nights had been spent in lonely prayer, [5077] and surely it is not too bold to associate such thoughts with the first night in Passion week. Thus, also, we can most readily account for that exhaustion and faintness of hunger, which next morning made Him seek fruit on the fig-tree on His way to …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Third Day in Passion-Week - the Events of that Day - the Question of Christ's Authority - the Question of Tribute to Cæsar - The
THE record of this third day is so crowded, the actors introduced on the scene are so many, the occurrences so varied, and the transitions so rapid, that it is even more than usually difficult to arrange all in chronological order. Nor need we wonder at this, when we remember that this was, so to speak, Christ's last working-day - the last, of His public Mission to Israel, so far as its active part was concerned; the last day in the Temple; the last, of teaching and warning to Pharisees and Sadducees; …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

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