Practical Observations.

1. Affection desires to express itself in costly sacrifices for the loved.

2. The motive, the love, gives value to the deed; as Hermon and Pisgah were but common mountains till Christ was transfigured on the one, and Moses saw the promised land from the other.

3. The worldly heart can never understand the blessedness and power of enthusiasm, and gifts of love.

4. Bad men always put forward good motives for their bad deeds.

5. Expressions of affection are of great value. We all need sympathy, and that it be expressed, especially the poor, the sick, the sorrowing.

6. God does not need our gifts; he is rich enough without: but he wants the giving, the spirit of sacrifice.

7. The gifts for the gospel, for the church, for Christ's sake, always increase the gifts to the poor.

8. Reasons for Triumphal Procession. Till then he had withdrawn from popular expressions of homage; but once, at least, he wished to show himself as King Messiah of his people. It was a last call addressed by him to the population of Jerusalem. This course, besides, could no longer compromise his work. He knew that in any case death awaited him in the capital.—Godet. He would have a public testimony to the fact that it was their King the Jews crucified. It is not merely the Messiah that saves, nor the crucified One that saves, but the Messiah crucified (1 Cor. 1:23). An analogous commission to prepare the Passover was given to Peter and John (Luke 22:8). They may have been the two sent forth.—Abbott.

9. Celebration of Triumph. In September, a.d. 61, about 30 years after Christ's triumphal entry, the most magnificent triumph ever seen in Rome was given to Pompey. For two days the grand procession of trophies from every land, and a long retinue of captives, moved into the city along the Via Sacra. Brazen tablets were carried, on which were engraved the names of the conquered nations, including 1,000 castles and 900 cities. The remarkable circumstance of the celebration was, that it declared him conqueror of the whole world. So the triumphant procession of Christ into Jerusalem was but a faint shadow of the coming of the Prince of peace, when all nations and the wealth and glory of them shall take part in his glorious triumph. And the day is fast approaching.—After Foster's Cyclopædia. 191