AN EVENING ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES.
Jesus and His friends went out from the Temple and Jerusalem to the
Mount of Olives, and as they looked back upon the beautiful buildings
of marble and gold that made the Temple seem like a great jewel shining
in the sunset, the disciples turned to Jesus and spoke of it, but He
said,
"There shall not be left here one stone that shall not be thrown down."
They sat down on the slope of Olivet where the olive and fig-trees were
putting forth their new leaves, and in that quiet time Peter, and
James, and John, and Andrew drew close about their beloved Master, and
said, "Tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign
of thy coming, and the end of the world?" He told them many things
hard to be understood; of the sorrows of Israel when their city should
be destroyed, and the people scattered; of the end of the age, when
they should turn to the Lord they had rejected, and of His coming to
the whole world.
"Watch, therefore," He said, "for ye know not what hour your Lord doth
come," and He told them of the faithful and the unfaithful servants;
that the one was found doing his duty when his lord returned, and was
made ruler over all his goods, but the other, unfaithful in all things,
was surprised by his lord's coming and cast out.
He told them another beautiful "watching" story of the Ten Virgins who
went forth with their little lamps to meet the bridegroom on his way to
the marriage feast. Five of them took oil to fill their lamps, and
five took no oil with them. The bridegroom was long in coming, and
they all fell asleep; but at midnight there was a cry, "Behold the
bridegroom cometh! go ye out to meet him!" Then they all arose and
trimmed their lamps, but five of the lamps had gone out, and the
foolish maids who brought no oil to fill them begged it of the others,
but they were told that they must go and buy it of those who had it to
sell. While they went to buy the bridegroom came, and they that were
ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut.
Afterward, when the five thoughtless ones came to the door crying,
"Lord, Lord, open to us!" they only heard the answer, "I know you not."
After this He told them the story of the Talents, which you may read in
the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. It is the Lord's teaching to all
disciples about making the most of the life He gives us.
His last story was a picture of the gathering of the nations, and the
separation of the good and the true from the false and the evil. The
King's call to the good, "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," carried
with it a strange reason. "For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat;
I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me
in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in
prison, and ye came unto me."
Then the good whom He had called were astonished, and cried, "Lord,
when saw we thee an hungered and fed thee? or thirsty, a stranger,
sick, or in prison?" and He answered, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto
one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." To
the false and the evil He could not say these things, but quite the
opposite; and when they wondered when they had seen the Lord hungry, or
thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and had not
ministered unto Him, He said, "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the
least of these, ye did it not to me." Those by a life of love and
service had chosen eternal life, but these by a life of selfishness had
chosen death.