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Doomed People
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the barren fig tree, the result was shown. They had determined their
own destruction.
For more than a thousand years the Jewish nation had rejected
God’s warnings and slain His prophets. For these sins the people
of Christ’s day made themselves responsible by following the same
course. The fetters which the nations had for centuries been forging,
the people of Christ’s day were fastening on themselves.
There comes a time when mercy makes her last plea. Then the
sweet, winning voice of the Spirit entreats the sinner no longer.
That day had come to Jerusalem. Jesus wept in anguish over the
doomed city, but could not deliver her. He had exhausted every re-
source. In rejecting the warnings of God’s Spirit, Israel had rejected
the only means of help.
The Jewish nation was a symbol of the people of all ages who
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scorn the pleadings of Infinite Love. The tears of Christ when He
wept over Jerusalem were for the sins of all time.
In this generation many are treading the same ground as the
unbelieving Jews. The Holy Spirit has spoken to their hearts, but they
are not willing to confess their errors. They reject God’s message
and His messenger.
Today Bible truth, the religion of Christ, struggles against a
strong current of moral impurity. Prejudice is stronger now than
in Christ’s day. The truth of God’s Word does not harmonize with
men’s natural inclination, and thousands reject its light and choose
their independent judgment. But they do it at the peril of their souls.
Those who caviled at the words of Christ found ever-increasing
cause for cavil, until they turned from the Truth and the Life. God
does not propose to remove every objection which the carnal heart
may bring against His truth. To those who refuse light which would
illuminate the darkness, the mysteries of God’s Word remain such
forever. From them the truth is hidden.
Christ’s words are applicable to every soul who slights the plead-
ings of divine mercy. Christ is shedding bitter tears for you, who
have no tears to shed for yourself. And every evidence of the grace
of God, every ray of divine light, is either melting and subduing the
soul, or confirming it in hopeless impenitence.
Christ foresaw that Jerusalem would remain impenitent, yet all
the guilt lay at her own door. Thus it will be with every soul who