276 THE OLIVE LEAF, CHAP. 



them for their sins. The rejected stone having become the 

 head of the corner is itself the instrument of vengeance 

 upon those who set it at nought. 



There is a lighter and a more severe punishment 

 threatened. Woe to those who shall fall upon this 

 stone, who are offended by the Messiah's low estate, 

 and will not have Him to reign over them because 

 of His weakness and poverty ; for like an earthenware 

 vessel that falls upon the stone of the pottery-crusher 

 and is broken, so they will inflict by their conduct a 

 grievous injury upon themselves : they shall suffer pain 

 and loss. This sin the Jews have already committed, 

 and this punishment they have already drawn upon 

 themselves. But a far direr woe is in store for those 

 upon whom the stone shall fall who set themselves 

 in final and self-conscious opposition to the Messiah ; 

 for, just as the stone of the pottery-crusher is rolled 

 backwards and forwards upon the broken potsherds, 

 pounding them to the finest dust, so the finally im- 

 penitent shall be condemned to utter destruction from 

 the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His 

 power. To reject Jesus as He appeared before them in 

 the lowly guise of flesh and blood was like an earthen- 

 ware vessel falling upon the stone of the pottery-crusher ; 

 pain and loss and present harm would be suffered, but 

 there might be recovery from such a fall ; the pot might 

 be broken in pieces sufficiently large to allow them to 

 be joined together and mended, and the vessel might be 

 made useful again. But to be found thus rejecting Jesus 

 when He should come again in His glory would be like 



