Hosanna!

HOSANNA! "Save now," or, “Send now prosperity!" was a triumphal cry, used in the religious services of the Jews when our Lord was on earth. It was specially addressed to God on great feast-days; the priests chanting certain psalms, and the people responding with loud" hosannas," the children joining in the shout, and while so doing all waving branches of the palm and willow. On "the last day, that great day of the feast" (John 7:37) of Tabernacles, throngs of people crowded the courts of the temple, and made processions round the altar with great shoutings of hosanna, and weavings of entwined branches of willow; myrtle, and palm. We can form but a feeble idea of the joyful scenes that took place in the glorious temple of God in Jerusalem, and how the hosannas and hallelujahs of thousands rang through its beautiful courts, and echoed down the streets of the city.
In the 118th Psalm, at the commencement of verse 25, is the original of the word hosanna—hosiah-na: save now. The whole of the verse runs thus: "Save now, I beseech Thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech Thee, send now prosperity." To read the whole of the psalm is to see at once how surely it speaks of our blessed Lord Jesus. He is "the stone which the builders refused" (verse 22); and we know how He Himself asked the chief priests and the elders of the people, "Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?" (Matt. 21:42.)
The day before Jesus asked this question in the temple, He had come to Jerusalem, as the prophet so many years previously had foretold: "Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass" (verse 3). The meek and lowly Jesus thus rode into Zion with a very great multitude around Him, and some spread their garments on the road, while others cut down branches of trees, and strewed them in the way. From before and behind Him arose the triumphal cry from thousands of voices, “Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord.' (See Psa. 118:26.) Hosanna in the highest." They. rejoiced greatly. (Zech. 9:9.) Well did those multitudes know these words, for they had again and again cried them aloud in their feast-day services. Now He, of whom the psalmist wrote, Zion's King, was in their midst.
The whole city was stirred, and 'we can well picture to ourselves the crowded streets and house-tops filled with people, all saying, as the joyful procession moved along, "Who is this?" and we can hear the multitudes answer, "This is Jesus, the Prophet of Galilee.”
So He entered the temple, the just and lowly Lord. Immediately, He cast out those who sold doves and changed money there: these men were robbers of the country people and the poor. They used the very offerings of Jehovah's worshippers as a means to enrich themselves. He cleansed that sacred building and its courts from these who had turned Jehovah's house, the house of prayer, into a den of thieves. "Holiness becometh Thine house, O Lord, forever." (Psa. 93:5.)
His fame that day reached to the ends of Jerusalem. The blind and the lame heard the hosannas; they groped or dragged themselves into the temple, and He healed them. Zion's King in grace allowed not sin or suffering a place in the house of prayer. The chief priests, vexed and angry, could do nothing; the temple, as the city, rang with hosannas to Jesus—"Save now, I beseech Thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech Thee, send now prosperity.”
Children had followed Jesus into the temple. On the feast-days they had joined with their parents in loud hosannas, now they crowded around Jesus and cried aloud to Him, “Hosanna to the Son of David!
See them all looking up into His face! Yes, Jesus loves little children. He loves to have the dear little ones look up to Him; He is love. He welcomed their praise; He is so gentle. May be, they did not understand all that their words meant; but Jesus listened to them.
The priests were much annoyed to hear the children call Jesus the Son of David in the temple, and say to Him, " Save now; send now prosperity I" Who but Ile can save? Who but He shall send us prosperity? To Him we will cry, Hosanna. Yes! Hosanna to Jesus! The priests might try to hush the children's voices. Very displeased they might be, and indeed, we can see them bidding the little ones not to make so much of Jesus. But, children, you cannot make too much of our blessed Saviour, for He died for us, and He loves little children. So sing hosanna to Him. It was of no use putting up the finger to the children, and saying, "Hush!" for cry aloud hosanna to Jesus, they would.
Really, one could almost wish to be a child again for an hour, were it possible, to stand among a multitude of boys and girls who love Jesus, and who all sing from their heart of hearts His praise. But a brighter and sweeter day is near! All who love the dear Saviour shall stand about Him in heaven; all shall look into His face and sing His praise. Thousands and thousands shall gather around Him, and multitudes of dear little children shall sing "Glory, glory, glory!" Oh, how happy that day will be!
It was in vain to try to hush the children's hosannas in the temple, and at length the chief priests and scribes came to Jesus and said, "Hearest Thou what these say?" "These," that means the children; as if they were so noisy and foolish, yes, so wrong in praising Jesus in the Temple of God. Of course the Lord heard what they said! He hears every word we say. He hears in heaven what you whisper in mother's ear; yes, what you whisper in your heart for mother not to hear! And He hears the children's praises: He loves to hear them. "Yes," said He to the priests.
And then the Lord asked them if they had never read this text: "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise" (ver. 16), and this means very little ones, too young to read, but not too young to love; and He left the priests to search their Scriptures. The poor priests and scribes would not praise Jesus; they did not love Him.
God grant that our dear little readers, and such as are too little to read themselves and who are read to—the very small boys and girls, may every one sing the praises of Jesus here, and also in heaven, In the beautiful city of God, the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple. (Rev. 21:22.) There no proud chief priests and scribes shall say “Hush" to the children's praises; there the songs of praise shall never, never end; there the blessed Jesus who died for us shall never, never, be pained, nor weep over the hardness of men's hearts; but all shall see His smile of love.
Come, children, one and all, crowd around Jesus the Saviour; cry aloud to Him, "Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna!”
Bible Lessons for the Little Ones
(Read Matt. 8:1-5; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-17.)
YOU have read three accounts, dear children, of a poor sick man who met the Lord Jesus as He came down from the hill where He had been speaking many wonderful words about the kingdom of heaven, and about God His Father.
What was the matter with this man, and why does he fall on his face before the Lord Jesus, and speak to Him so earnestly, while all the people, who had been pressing round so closely before, draw back and seem afraid lest even his dress should touch them?
I think you know that it was a very terrible thing to be a leper, and that was what this poor man was when he came to Jesus. The people knew he was a leper; they knew that he had a dreadful sickness which none of the doctors in Galilee could cure, and they knew that God had forbidden them to come near him. A leper, as he passed along the road, had to cry out with a sad and bitter cry, and when anyone saw him coming and heard the cry, "Unclean, unclean," he got away as fast as he could, or passed by on the other side. Lepers were the most lonely people in all the country. Think what it must have been to see everyone run away from you, and for the mothers to take their little children in their arms as you came in sight and say to them, "No, he is a leper; you must never go near lepers." We can hardly tell how dreadful it must have been.
'Many a time that poor leper had longed to be well, to get rid of his sore disease, but it was of no use, he could not make himself even better; no one could cure him, and there seemed no hope of help or comfort for him, until that day which changed his whole life, the day when he saw the Lord Jesus with so many people following him, coming down the hillside on the road to the city of Capernaum.
Perhaps he felt afraid at first to speak to the Lord, when there were so many people with Him, for he was "full of leprosy," and he well knew that not one face in all the crowd of his fellow men would look kindly at him, but that all would shrink away in fear and horror. Yet he knew something about the Lord Jesus which made him not afraid to press in among them all, that he might get near Him and say one word to Him, and so he came and kneeled down before Him, and said those few words.
What were they?
St. Matthew, and St. Mark, and St. Luke, all tell us in their gospels what the cry of that poor leper to the Lord Jesus was, so that we know his very words.
“Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.”
No one could ever care so much about people who were sick and sad, and lonely and helpless, as the Lord Jesus, but the poor leper did not know this. Then why did he come to Him?
It was because he knew that He was not like any of the doctors who could cure other people with their medicines and ointments, but who could never do a man" full of leprosy" any good. He knew that the Lord could make him "clean," that is, quite well from his dreadful disease. But he was not sure whether He was willing to use His power to heal a poor leper, and so he said, "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.”
I know a child who once said, "I know the Lord can save me, but I don't know whether He will." This was like the leper, was it not?
What a beautiful thing we read in the gospel by Mark as to what the Son of God felt when He saw this poor man and heard his cry! He was "moved with compassion," and at once His gracious answer came.
How glad the leper must have been when, "as soon as he had spoken," he heard the Lord say, "I will; be thou clean." The very next thing we read is, "immediately his leprosy was cleansed." What had the Lord Jesus done? He had "put forth His hand, and touched" that poor leper.
No one else dared do this, but the Lord could, by the touch of His blessed hand only, send away the dreadful disease; it could have no power to hurt Him; and “immediately" what all the doctors in the world could not do, was done.
Dear children, it was a real thing to that leper, on the road to Capernaum, to cry to the Lord Jesus and to know that his cry was heard. He received an answer of healing at once, and he was so filled with wonder and joy that he could not help telling what the Lord, who had compassion on him, had done for him. Wherever he went he told his story, and the people who had been afraid to come near him, now came round to listen to his words and to look at him, and then multitudes came to the Lord Jesus to hear Him, and to be healed of their sicknesses, for the leper had told them that he had found One who could make them well, and who was more willing to cure them than they were to ask Him.
How well it is for us to know that we, too, can cry to the. Lord Jesus. We can tell Him all about our sore disease—our sin, and ask Him to touch us and heal us, but we must never doubt His being willing to save us; we must never say, like the child of whom I told you, "I know the Lord can save me, but I am not sure that He will;" for He has given His own life to save us, and He has said we may come to Him as that leper came, just as we are, and He has promised that He will never send away one who comes.