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While Christ was unmoved at the foreseen decay of Capernaum, He wept at the thought of the desolation of Jerusalem; a sign of His perfect manhood that He should thus have most sympathy with those who were His countrymen.

I. WHAT IS IMPLIED BY THE RENUNCIATION OF CAPERNAUM AS EXALTED UNTO HEAVEN. The Bible finds man in a garden, it leaves him in a city; intimating that the highest kind of life is social. We are not to regard the accumulation of men into great communities as an unmixed evil. It may be a source of temptation; it is also the means of drawing out some of the holiest charities of the soul, some of the noblest endowments of the mind. It is this selfexaltation which is the snare of evVVV man who is one of a great community. The concourse of men has a tendency to put God at a distance. Hence arises an independent spirit. If we would lead a life safe from the casting down of shame and care, we must keep before us the thought of an ever-present, personal God. Distraction of mind makes men wretched. This is produced by absence of religious obedience. Men are worn out with the eternal strife to reconcile impossibilities. In putting our life under God, lies its own safe exaltation.

II. But it is not only the being independent of God which our Lord charges upon Capernaum; He speaks of it as being in AN ESPECIAL DEGREE INSENSIBLE TO HIS OWN WONDER-WORKING POWER. Here Christ appears to lay bare another fault to which large and flourishing communities are peculiarly liable, viz., insensibility to distinct religious impressions. This shows itself by the small proportion of people who attend public service or partake of the Lord's Supper. Not difficult to see the reason why this should be the besetting sin of those who live in large cities.

1. The personal insignificance of each individual in this place is a snare. One man is nothing the mighty throng.

2. There is never wanting in a vast population the support of others.

3. In living amongst large numbers, we become acutely suspicious of being deceived and misled. We learn to distrust our best feelings. Not more mighty works were done in Capernauru than in our own streets if we have hearts to receive them. All that savours of the supernatural in religion, finds men apathetic. For a little while we catch a glimpse of what is, we know what it is to believe; and then the cold black flood of worldliness and unconcern rolls back and the solemn union grows indistinct and fades away. The spirit of insensibility possesses us again. Then awaits that man a fall more disastrous than ever overtook any earthly city — not the casting down of walls, but the undermining of every high resolve, the decay of every unselfish principle, the ruin of every goodly hope.

(J. R. Woodford, M. A.)

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KJV: Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not:

WEB: Then he began to denounce the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they didn't repent.