For more than a thousand years, he had put his name
there. It was to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world,
the city set on a hill, which could not be hid. From Jerusalem was
to go forth to all nations the knowledge of the one true God, as a
light to lighten the Gentiles, as well as a glory to his people
Israel.
This was our Lord's purpose; this had been his purpose for one
thousand years and more: and behold, man's sin and folly had
frustrated for a time the gracious will of God. That glorious city,
with its temple, its worship, its religion, true as far as it went,
and, in spite of all the traditions with which the Scribes and
Pharisees had overlaid it, infinitely better than the creed or
religion of any other people in the old world--all this, instead of
being a blessing to the world, had become a curse. The Jews, who had
the key of the knowledge of God, neither entered in themselves, nor
let the Gentiles enter in. They who were to have taught all the
world were hating and cursing all the world, and being hated and
cursed by them in return. Jerusalem, the Holy City set on a hill,
instead of being a light to the world, was become a nuisance to the
world. Jerusalem was the salt of the world, meant to help it all
from decay; but the salt had lost its savour, and in another
generation it would be cast out and trodden under foot, and become a
byword among the Gentiles.
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