PREDICTIONS OF THE GOSPEL.

No one is a prophet in his own land. — Death and passion of Jesus.

— Persecution of the apostles.

— Impenitent cities.

— Ruin of the Temple and of Jerusalem.

— Curse upon the Pharisees.

— My words shall not pass away.

— The cornerstone. — Parable of the murderous vinedressers. — One flock and one shepherd. — Advent of Elijah. — Announcement of the Comforter. — Second advent of the Christ.

— Precursory signs.

— Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

— Last judgment.

CURSE UPON THE PHARISEES.

— (John the Baptist.) — Seeing many Pharisees and Sadducees who flocked to be baptized, he said to them: Race of vipers, who taught you to flee from the wrath that is to fall upon you? Bring forth then worthy fruits of penitence; do not think to say within yourselves: We have Abraham for father, for I declare to you that God is able from these very stones to raise up children to Abraham. The axe is already laid to the root of the trees, and every tree that does not bear good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire. (Saint Matthew, chapter III, vv. 7 to 10.)

— Woe to you, scribes and hypocritical Pharisees, because you shut against men the kingdom of Heaven; you do not enter there yourselves, and you even oppose others entering! Woe to you, scribes and hypocritical Pharisees, who, on the pretext of your long prayers, devour the houses of widows; for this you shall have a more rigorous judgment! Woe to you, scribes and hypocritical Pharisees, who travel over sea and land to make one proselyte, and who, after you have succeeded, make him twice more worthy of hell than yourselves! Woe to you, leaders of the blind, who say: If a man swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is bound to fulfill his oath! Foolish and blind that you are! Which is to be esteemed more: the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? If a man, you say, swears by the altar, that is nothing; but he who swears by the gift that is upon the altar is bound to fulfill his oath. Blind that you are! Which is to be esteemed more, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? He, then, who swears by the altar swears not only by the altar, but also by all that is upon the altar; and he who swears by the temple swears by him who dwells in it; and he who swears by Heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who is seated thereon. Woe to you, scribes and hypocritical Pharisees, who pay tithe of mint, of dill and of cumin, and who have abandoned what is most important in the law, namely: justice, mercy and faith! These are the things you ought to practice, without, however, omitting the others. Blind guides, who take great care to strain what you drink, for fear of swallowing a gnat, and who, nevertheless, swallow a camel! Woe to you, scribes and hypocritical Pharisees, who clean the outside of the cup and the dish, and who within are full of robbery and impurity! Blind Pharisees! cleanse first the inside of the cup and the dish, so that the outside may also be clean. Woe to you, scribes and hypocritical Pharisees, who are like whitewashed sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful to the eyes of men, but which within are full of dead men's bones and of every kind of rottenness! Thus, outwardly you appear just, while, within, you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe to you, scribes and hypocritical Pharisees, who build tombs for the prophets and adorn the monuments of the just, and who say: If we had existed in the time of our fathers, we would not have joined with them to shed the blood of the prophets! Thus, then, you finish filling up the measure of your fathers. Serpents, race of vipers, how can you escape condemnation to hell? Behold, I am going to send you prophets, men of wisdom and scribes, and you will kill some, crucify others, and others you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city, so that there may fall upon you all the innocent blood that has been shed on the Earth, from the blood of Abel, the just, to that of Zechariah, son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar! — Truly I say to you that all this shall come to fall upon this race that exists today. (Saint Matthew, chapter XXIII, vv. 13 to 36.)