THE FAMILY ALTAR
August 10.
"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the
things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from
thine eyes." Luke 19:42
On this tenth day of August, in the year seventy after our
Savior's birth, the city of Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, as
Christ had foretold forty years before. The horrors of its siege
and final destruction constitute one of the most frightful pages
in history. This day therefore reminds us of the pitying tears
which our Lord shed on the Palm Sunday about forty years before
at the sight of the doomed city and of His heart-rending cry:
"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the
things which belong unto thy peace ! But now they are hid from
thine eyes." As a hen gathereth her young under her protecting
wings, so had He in tireless love for three long years sought, but
sought in vain, to gather His people around Him and His sal-
vation. Even now He was ready to receive and save them if they
would only come to Him. But they would not come. He sees
and laments the fearful spiritual blindness holding their eyes and
made incurable through their wilful and persistent unbelief. He
had come as the "Light of the world" to enlighten and save them.
But they would not follow Him, and so were doomed, doomed by
their own fault, to destruction and everlasting night. He is still
the Light of the world, our blessed Lord. Whosoever believes in
Him does not walk in darkness, but has the light of life, of ever-
lasting life. But alas ! so many of His nominal followers still
walk in the natural blindness of their hearts, and refuse to believe
His Gospel and to be saved. For them He also wept. 0 may
our merciful Savior open our eyes that we may know in this our
day the things belonging to our peace !
Thou didst behold with pitying eye
Thy great salvation scorned and spurned,
Didst see the prostrate city lie
Ere long by judgment overturned;
Thy tears, O blessed Jesus, flowed,
Thy heart did break in tears of blood.
O man, behold in these sad tears
That flowed from thy dear Savior's eyes
What love to thee His Spirit bears.
Come thou with penitential sighs,
That He may now thy soul redeem,
Who once bewailed Jerusalem.
