18
The Great Controversy
other, hadst known the time of thy visitation, and the things that belong
unto thy peace! I have stayed the angel of justice, I have called thee
to repentance, but in vain. It is not merely servants, delegates, and
prophets, whom thou hast refused and rejected, but the Holy One of
Israel, thy Redeemer. If thou art destroyed, thou alone art responsible.
“Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.”
Matthew 23:37
;
John 5:40
.
Christ saw in Jerusalem a symbol of the world hardened in unbelief
and rebellion, and hastening on to meet the retributive judgments of
God. The woes of a fallen race, pressing upon His soul, forced from
His lips that exceeding bitter cry. He saw the record of sin traced in
human misery, tears, and blood; His heart was moved with infinite
pity for the afflicted and suffering ones of earth; He yearned to relieve
them all. But even His hand might not turn back the tide of human
woe; few would seek their only Source of help. He was willing to pour
out His soul unto death, to bring salvation within their reach; but few
would come to Him that they might have life.
The Majesty of heaven in tears! the Son of the infinite God troubled
in spirit, bowed down with anguish! The scene filled all heaven with
wonder. That scene reveals to us the exceeding sinfulness of sin; it
shows how hard a task it is, even for Infinite Power, to save the guilty
from the consequences of transgressing the law of God. Jesus, looking
down to the last generation, saw the world involved in a deception
similar to that which caused the destruction of Jerusalem. The great sin
of the Jews was their rejection of Christ; the great sin of the Christian
world would be their rejection of the law of God, the foundation of
His government in heaven and earth. The precepts of Jehovah would
be despised and set at nought. Millions in bondage to sin, slaves of
Satan, doomed to suffer the second death, would refuse to listen to the
[23]
words of truth in their day of visitation. Terrible blindness! strange
infatuation!
Two days before the Passover, when Christ had for the last time
departed from the temple, after denouncing the hypocrisy of the Jewish
rulers, He again went out with His disciples to the Mount of Olives
and seated Himself with them upon the grassy slope overlooking the
city. Once more He gazed upon its walls, its towers, and its palaces.
Once more He beheld the temple in its dazzling splendor, a diadem of
beauty crowning the sacred mount.