to us in the gospel. Not a state in which we shall know all things-for as Pascal says, "The highest perfection of human reason is to know that there is an infinity of truth beyond its reach "--but a state where all the obstructions to knowledge will be entirely and for ever removed. Where that moral depravity through which the intellect now looks at truth, as through a dark-colored glass, shall have given way, to the pure heart which "will see face to face"; where those intellectual prejudices, which blind the reason and warp the judgment, will have given place to a passionate love of truth for its own sake; where those physical infirmities, such as the need of sleep, the necessity of food, and the pains of disease, which are now constantly interfering with the mind in all its searchings after truth, and endeavors to become wise, will have given place to a spiritual body, that shall facilitate instead of clogging the mind's operations; and where those secular engagements, which now so engross the energies of the mind, shall have given place to services conducive to the mind's strength, freedom and success in all its efforts to advance in knowledge. A state, moreover, not only where all obstructions to knowledge shall be removed, but where all facilities shall be secured. Where we shall see, not " through glass darkly, but face to face." Just as Robertson has it; what the going out of a room lighted through horn windows into the clear daylight, would be to us now, will be the entrance of the purified spirit into God's realities out of this world of shadows, of things half seen, and of restless dreams.

VI. If we are thus so necessarily ignorant, WE SHOULD

WITH

RAPTUROUS

GRATITUDE AVAIL

OURSELVES OF THE

a relation to something that is known to us. We feel instantly the desire of knowing this too. We have a desire of knowledge which nothing can abate, a desire that in some greater or less degree extends itself to everything which we are capable of knowing, and not to realities merely, but to all the extravagancies of fiction."-Dr. Brown's Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind.

MERCIFUL

INTERPOSITION OF CHRIST AS OUR GUIDE TO IMMORTALITY. Involved as we are in deep mists of ignorance, and passing on step by step, without a moment's pause, through scenes the most intricate, and perilous, to a future that will determine our destinies for ever, what are we to do? Unaided reason has no torch to light us safely on the way. Great sages of the ancient world, as they groped their way by the glimering rays of their own reason, have fatally stumbled, and have been "destroyed for the lack of knowledge." And from the deep abyss of departed centuries, their cry comes up to us, "It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." What then are we to do? Our gracious Maker has met our case. He has sent His Son into our world, who appeared in our nature, showed us the way of life, trod that way Himself, and offered to be the guide of all who will confide in Him. He stands by you and says, "Follow me." Imbibe My spirit, obey My directions, tread in My foot-prints, trust in My redemptive love, and then "where I am there shall ye be also." Brother, take Him as your guide. This is wise. Trust not the candle of your own reason to light you on the way; that candle may soon burn out. One puff of trial may quench it and leave you in midnight. Follow that bright star which infinite mercy has planted in your hemisphere ;-a star which no cloud shall ever darken, and no storm ever quench.

The Genius of the Gospel.

ABLE expositions of the gospel, describing the manners, customs, and localities, alluded to by the inspired writers; also interpreting their words, and harmonizing their formal discrepancies, are, happily, not wanting amongst us. But the eduction of its WIDEST truths and highest suggestions is still a felt desideratum. To some attempt at the work we devote these pages. We gratefully avail ourselves of all exegetical helps within our reach; but to occupy our limited space with any lengthened archæological, geographic, or philological remarks, would be to miss our aim; which is not to make bare the mechanical process of scriptural study, but to reveal its spiritual results.

SECTION SIXTY-NINTH :- -Matt. xxi. 17-23.

he hungered.

"And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there. Now in the morning as he returned into the city, And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, if ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."

SUBJECT:-The Withered Fig Tree: a Symbol.

WE cannot better introduce the lessons which we wish to get out of this wonderful incident, than by quoting from the great Neander the following explanatory remarks on the passage.

"A remarkable occurrence in this part of the history must now be examined somewhat closely. Christ, returning with his disciples in the morning from Bethany to Jerusalem, became hungry, and saw at a distance a fig-tree in full leaf. At that season of the year such a tree might be expected, in full

foliage, to bear fruit; and he walked towards it, to pluck off the figs. Finding none, he said, "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever." On the second morning, the disciples, coming the same way, were astonished to find the fig-tree withered.

Shall we see in

In what light is this fact to be regarded? it the immediate result of Christ's words; in fact, a miracle, as Matthew's statement appears to imply? All his other miracles were acts of love, acts of giving and creation; this would be a punitive and destroying miracle, falling, too, upon a natural object, to which no guilt could cling. It would certainly be at variance with all other peculiar operations of Christ, who came in every respect, "not to destroy, but to fulfil." Shall we conceive that the coincidence with Christ's words was merely accidental-a view which suits Mark's statement better than Matthew's. If so, we shall find it impossible to extract from Christ's words, twist them as we may, a sense worthy of him.

The proper medium is to be found in the symbolical meaning of the act. If the miracles generally have a symbolical import (and we have shown that in some it is particularly prominent), we have in this case one that is entirely symbolical. The fig-tree, rich in foliage, but destitute of fruit, represents the Jewish people, so abundant in outward shows of piety, but destitute of its reality. Their vital sap was squandered upon leaves. And as the fruitless tree, failing to realize the aim of its being, was destroyed; so the Theocratic nation, for the same reason, was to be overtaken, after long forbearance, by the judgments of God, and shut out from his kingdom.

The prophets were accustomed to convey both instructions and warnings by symbolical acts; and the purport of this act, as both warning and prediction, was precisely suited to the time. But to understand Christ's act aright, we must not conceive that he at once caused a sound tree to wither. This would not, as we have said, be in harmony with the general aim of his miracles; nor would it correspond to the idea which

He designed to set vividly before the disciples. A sound tree, suddenly destroyed, would certainly be no fitting type of the Jewish people. We must rather believe that the same cause which made the tree barren had already prepared the way for its destruction, and that Christ only hastened a crisis which had to come in the course of nature. In this view it would correspond precisely to the great event in the world's history which it was designed to prefigure: for the moral character of the Jewish nation had long been fitting it for destruction; and the Divine government of the world only brought on the crisis.

It is true, no explanation on the part of Christ is added in the account of the event above related, although we may readily believe that the disciples were not so capable of apprehending His meaning or so inclined to do it, as to stand in need of no explanation. But we find such an explanation in the parable of the barren fig tree (Luke xiii. 6-9), which evidently corresponds to the fact that we have just unfolded. As the fact is wanting in Luke, and the parable in Matthew and Mark, we have additional reason to infer such a correspondence. We cannot conclude, with some, that the narrative of the fact was merely framed from an embodiment of the parable; nor that the fact itself, so definitely related, was purely ideal; but we find in the correspondence of the two an intimation that idea and history go here together; and that, according to the prevailing tendencies of the persons who transmitted the accounts, the one or the other was thrown into the back-ground."

Adopting then, the view of Neander, and regarding the fig tree, here smitten by Christ, as symbolic, we proceed to notice the two subjects which are evidently contained in the whole passage:

I. THE DOOM OF A FRUITLESS LIFE. The tree was now smitten to destruction by a miracle of Almighty power. First: The doom was manifestly just. (1) Think of the position in which it was planted.

VOL. X.

It

was in the way

R