welcome of Christ - how is it to be explained, and how reconciled with the speedy and

terrible reaction of His Betrayal and Crucifixion? Yet it i s not so difficult to understand it;

and, if we only keep clear of unconscious exaggeration, we shall gain in truth and

reasonableness what we lose in dramatic effect. It has already been suggested, that the

multitude which went to meet Jesus must have consisted chiefly of pilgrim-strangers.

The overwhelming majority of the citizens of Jerusalem were bitterly and determinately

hostile to Christ. But we know that, even so, the Pharisees dreaded to take the final

steps against Christ during the presence of these pilgrims at the Feast, apprehending a

movement in His favour.33 It proved, indeed, otherwise; for these country-people were

but ill -informed; they dared not resist the combined authority of their own Sanhedrin and

of the Romans. Besides, the prejudices of the populace, and especially of an Eastern

populace, are easily raised, and they readily sway from one extreme to the opposite.

Lastly, the very suddenness and completeness of the blow, which the Jewish authorities

delivered, would have stunned even those who had deeper knowledge, more cohesion,

and greater independence than most of them who, on that Palm-Sunday, had gone forth

from the City.

Again, as regards their welcome of Christ, deeply significant as it was, we must not

attach to it deeper meaning than it possessed. Modern writers have mostly seen in it the

demonstrations of the Feast of Tabernacles,34 as if the homage of its services had been

offered to Christ. It would, indeed, have bee n symbolic of much about Israel if they had

thus confounded the Second with the First Advent of Christ, the Sacrifice of the

Passover with the joy of the Feast of Ingathering. But, in reality, their conduct bears not

that interpretation. It is true that these responses from Ps. cxviii., which formed part of

what was known as the (Egyptian) Hallel,35 were chanted by the people on the Feast of

Tabernacles also, but the Hallel was equally sung with responses during the offering of

the Passover, at the Paschal Supper, and on the Feasts of Pentecost and of the

Dedication of the Temple. The waving of the palm -branches was the welcome of visitors

or kings,36 and not distinctive of the Feast of Tabernacles. At the latter, the worshippers

carried, not simple palm-bra nches, but the Lulabh, which consisted of palm, myrtle, and

willow branches intertwined. Lastly, the words of welcome from Ps. cxviii. were (as

already stated) those with which on solemn occasions the people also greeted the

arrival of festive pilgrims,37 although, as being offered to Christ alone, and as

accompanied by such demonstrations, they may have implied that they hailed Him as

the promised King, and have converted His Entry into a triumph in which the people did

homage. And, if proof were required of the more sober, and, may we not add, rational

view here advocated, it would be found in this, that not till after His Resurrection did

even His own disciples understand the significance of the whole scene which they had

witnessed, and in which they had borne such a part.