Jesus had been addressing the multitude, in the presence of his disciples. He had reproved the scribes and the Pharisees for their sins, and had declared, in the previous chapter, the doom of the Jews, their city, and their temple. The disciples supposed that the temple would stand forever, and they called the attention of Christ to its magnificence and strength, and to the great stones that entered into the structure. On this point the historian of those times, Josephus, says: “Now the temple was built of stones that were white and strong, and each of their lengths was twenty‐ five cubits, their height was eight, and their breadth about twelve.”—_“__Antiquities,__”__ book xv, chap. xi._ If we compute a cubit at twenty inches, we shall be able to gain some idea of the size and “manner” of these stones. VERSE 2: “And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” VERSE 3: “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” This statement from the Master could not but deeply interest the disciples. And it matters not whether they supposed that the destruction of the temple, the coming of Christ, and the end of the age, would all occur at the same time, or at different periods, since Christ, in his answer in this chapter, has distinctly spoken of each separately, and has given each its place in the prophetic history of events. If it were their impression that the overthrow of the temple and the end of the world would occur at the same time, it by no means proves that this would be the case. As the Scriptures show, up to the time of the out‐pouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, their ideas upon many points were crude and inaccurate. Take as proof of this the parable which the Lord spake when he was going into Jerusalem. Luke 19. They thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. To correct this impression, the parable of the nobleman was spoken. If they understood the parable at the time when it was spoken, it did not fully eradicate the impression from their minds, as is proved by what they did when they entered Jerusalem. We cannot believe that they would have hailed him as the Son of David, and rejoiced before him as a King in his triumph, if they had realized that he was going into the city to be condemned and crucified as a malefactor. Palm branches and shouts of triumph did not attend the steps of the lowly and the condemned. John admits for himself and Peter, after they had seen the empty sepulcher, that “they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.” John 20:9.