"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" He exclaims, "How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"
Do you not know how, sometimes, a mother holds out her arms to a child who has been naughty, but perhaps the child turns away and will not come back to the loving embrace?
Have you not seen how sad that mother's face has looked? "But ye would not!" goes to her heart.
And that is something like Jesus felt when sinners would not come to Him to be forgiven.
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It was only a very little while after He had said those words about the hen and the chickens, and about "Ye would not," that He wept over Jerusalem as He came down from the Mount of Olives and came in sight of the beautiful city, and thought of all the sorrow that was coming upon it.
And as He wept He said, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes."
I think these sorrowful words of our dear Lord should sink into our hearts, and we should look up into His face now in the glory, and tell Him we will not grieve Him by our want of love!
Let us run from Satan, our great enemy, to His sheltering arms!
Like those little chicks, at sight of danger, let us fly to Him; and He will receive us, and comfort us, and protect us.