Page:Philochristus, Abbott, 1878.djvu/331

Rh forth leaves but no fruits. Therefore the Lord, seeking fruit, goeth unto the tree, rising up early in the morning; and he looketh on it, and behold there are leaves, but no fruits. Then was the Lord wroth, and breathed upon the tree, and said unto it, "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever:" and lo, when He returned and came by the same path again in the evening, the tree had withered away. When we heard these things, straightway there came into our minds another parable which our Master had spoken in former times concerning a barren tree; how the owner thereof cometh to the gardener and saith, "Lo, these two years I come seeking fruit and find none. Cut it down." But the gardener besought the Lord that it might not be cut down till another year should pass, if perchance it might in the mean time bear fruit. Thence we perceived, comparing the two parables together, that Jesus discerned the wrath of God now nearer at hand. For before, there was mention of hope and of a respite of two years; but now there was to be no hope and no respite.

But most strange it was to us to note how the worship and splendor of the temple caused him no pleasure, but rather displeasure. Yet so it was. For on the second day of the week, when he was going forth from the city in the evening, a certain citizen of Jerusalem besought the disciples that they would shew him the buildings of the temple: "For," said he, "it were a shame that Jesus of Nazareth should have been now two whole days in Jerusalem and not to have seen these sights." But when the disciples moved him to see these things, he seemed like unto one constraining himself to look upon them that he might do us a pleasure: and when he had looked round upon them all, then he was silent for a while, and we perceived that they pleased him not. At last he