Gethsemane." Unto the three disciples whom he had chosen from among the twelve he said, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death: tarry ye here and watch with me." How cheering are the presence and watchful care of friends; how much does their affectionate anxiety lighten the heaviest load of suffering, and brighten the darkest hour of life! But He who had yet to be forsaken by God was now neglected by man; and it was not the least melancholy moment of his earthly existence, which wrung from him the gentle yet heart-breaking complaint, “What! could ye not watch with me one hour?" Afflictions are never to be desired for their own sake; and He who left us an example that we may follow his steps, at once pointed out our duty, and proved the intensity of his agony by his thrice repeated prayer, "O my Father, if it be possible,"-if it be not necessary for the redemption of the world, and the manifestation of thy glory,-"let this cup pass from me." The presence of an angel strengthened him, but did not withdraw the bitter draught, "and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground." The shadows now began to deepen, the gloomy portents of his approaching doom thickened around him. The lanterns and torches of the band that came to seize him appeared through the foliage amid the blackness of night. The dismal scene was in frightful agreement with the hellish deed. This was the hour and the power of darkness. Unnecessary weapons were brought against Him "who gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair." The leader of his enemies was his own familiar friend, and the fondest token of love was selected as the signal of his destruction. He was in all points tempted like as we are, and laboured under all our sinless infirmities; and doubtless an enfeebled body, and unhinged imagination, exhibited in the darkest colours, and added to the horrors of his situation. But what increased his sorrows could not shake his constancy; and it was at this awful hour, when wading through this horrible pit, and this miry clay, to the doom which he knew lay before him, that he calmed the re-awakened affection, and subdued the unreflecting enthusiasm, of a generous follower in these pathetic words, "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?' "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?" But how altered are the circumstances under which that cup is this day set before us! The reign of terror has become the kingdom of peace, the fruits of guilt have become the The cup which our Father hath given us, shall we not drink it? Shall we despise and reject the cup of salvation, and account the blood of the covenant, wherewith we are sanctified, an unholy thing? Shall we lightly esteem that which was purchased at so great a price, and reject the counsel of God against ourselves? Shall we repair to streams of false delight, and forsake the fountain of living waters ? Shall it be to us in vain that through the tender mercy of our God the dayspring from on high hath visited us,-in vain that we have seen his salvation? Shall we hear, as though we heard not, his invitations of mercy," O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help?" Shall it be to us, as though it had not been, that the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, who for our sakes trod life's thorniest paths, has now ascended up on high, leading captivity captive, tas received gifts for men, has become a prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins? The cup which our Father bath given us, shall we not drink it? The commandments which he hath prescribed to us, shall we not keep; the laws which he hath given us, shall we not obey; the path which be bath marked out for us, shall we not walk in it; shall we abandon the guide which he hath assigned us to lead us to the rest which remaineth for the people of God? The cup which our Father hath given us, shall we not drink it? Shall we doubt that he is still our Father, when he visits us with the wise, and good, and salutary, though painful dispensations of his providence? Shall we forget that whom he loveth he chasteneth,—that when we endure his afflictions he dealeth with us as sons? Shall we fail to remember, amidst the dark, and mysterious, and sorrowful methods of his grace, that "He who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up to death for us all, will with him freely give us all things?" No, my brethren, with God's help we will form better resolutions than these before we leave the table of the Lord. May he, by his Holy Spirit, enable us, under all our sorrows, to think of Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest we be weary and faint in our minds; amidst all our temptations to follow his example who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners; and against all the convictions of sin, and accusations of conscience, to plead the merits of Him, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. When thus to live is Christ, to die is gain. "Blessed are they who shall drink of the fruit of the vine new with him in his Father's kingdom." Amen. THE PASCHAL LAMB: A DISCOURSE. BY THE REV. ROBERT MENZIES, "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. SPEAKING of the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish worship, St. Paul declares that they are a shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ. You know, my brethren, it pleased that adorable Being, whose wisdom is unsearchable, and his ways past finding out, to develope, by slow and progressive degrees, the great scheme of our salvation. Immediately subsequent to the fall, he vouchsafed to our first parents the promise of a Deliverer, who should restore to them the innocence and felicity which they had so unhappily forfeited; and in every succeeding age, until it was at last accomplished, to holy men whom he chose for the purpose, he repeated this promise, accompanying each repetition of it by increased light and information respecting its import. Even in the days of the patriarchs, we find not a few types and figures, of divine appointment, fraught with mysterious meaning, pointing to a bright and happy future, and giving such intimations respecting the the hope and the faith of God's ancient people. promised Messiah, as were well calculated to feed Under the Mosaic dispensation this is still more the case; here the types and figures have not only multiplied in number, but increased in clearness it were, like a vast mirror, in which the great Deand significance. In fact, the entire ritual is just, as liverer, and all the blessings of the new and better covenant, are reflected from afar, and in which they were not obscurely intimated to the chosen people. But of all the figures and adumbrations of the | ceremonial law, there is none more curious and memorable than the paschal lamb. In this instance so strong is the resemblance, and so numerous the points of conformity betwixt the shadow and the substance, the type and the antitype, that it is altogether impossible to compare them without being profoundly struck by the palpable traces of divine contrivance, and without admiring that overruling wisdom which, in this legal sacrament, vouchsafed to God's Church of old so clear a lesson respecting the great Deliverer that was to come, and which now affords, in the same, so incontrovertible a proof of the divinity of our religion, to confirm the faith of modern believers, and to put to shame the obstinacy of the infidel. For only reflect, my brethren, how beautifully the moral character of the Saviour is shadowed forth in the dispositions of the animal that was here selected as the victim. The lamb, you know, is, of all creatures, the most gentle, and, therefore, surely the fittest representative of Him who could say concerning himself, "Take my yoke upon you, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls." The lamb is innocent and harmless; and was not the blessed Jesus likewise holy and harmless, kind and merciful to all who asked his aid, and doing injury to none? The lamb is patient and unresisting, dumb before her shearers, and licking the hand about to shed her blood; and does not the evangelical prophet bear testimony to Jesus, that though oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, but gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair? He hid not his face from shame and spitting. When he was reviled, he reviled not again, and when he suffered, he threatened not. And oh! what a brightness and lustre does the patience of our divine Master assume when we remember, that although content to appear beneath the guise of bleeding, helpless, and unresisting innocence, he was yet as the lion of the tribe of Judah, armed with the might of omnipotence, and could have petrified his tormentors with a look, or commanded the lightning of heaven to consume them in the twinkling of an eye! The paschal lamb was to be taken from the flock. And so was Jesus raised up from among his brethren, having become a partaker of our flesh and blood. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, it is written that "he took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham, because it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren." Highest honour ever conferred upon human nature, that, notwithstanding all the infirmities, and all the blots with which sin has impaired its perfection, and effaced its primeval beauty, the Lord of glory condescended to wear it! Noblest distinction of the race of Adam, to count the Son of God himself as a kinsman and brother! The paschal lamb was enjoined to be without blemish. And was not He, who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself to God, likewise without blemish and without spot? In assuming our nature, he assumed not the pollution with which it is infected. No taint of sin ever defiled the spotless purity of his heart, or obscured the holy beauty of his life. The paschal lamb was to be a male of the first year. And does not this affectingly shadow forth the brief term of our Saviour's sublunary existence, and the early and premature fate by which he was cut off,-cut off by his cruel and remorseless countrymen, in the flower of his youth? Does it not also seem to indicate his fitness to be the food and nourishment of the soul, a food sweeter far to the sanctified taste than the sweetest carnal delights and satisfactions to be found beneath the sun! The paschal lamb was to be taken from the fold on the tenth day of the month, and kept to be slain upon the fourteenth. It was thus to remain four days destined and set apart for its sacred use. Here let us wonder and be amazed at the depths both of the wisdom and knowledge of that God who governs the universe, and with whom a thousand years are but as one day, and one day as a thousand years. For mark the memorable coincidence; just four thousand years had elapsed from the time when the promise of a Deliverer was given to Adam, to the time when that promise was fulfilled in the bloody death of Jesus Christ. Moreover, just four years before he met his fate, had he quitted his paternal roof to devote himself to the work appointed him by his Father. In fine, it was on the fourth day preceding his crucifixion that he bade adieu to the scene of his duties and public ministry, and made his solemn entrance into Jerusalem, the appointed theatre of his sufferings, there to complete that work by dying upon the cross. If these points of resemblance in the paschal lamb to the person of our blessed Master are curious and interesting, we shall find many equally striking in the manner in which the two victims were slain. The paschal lamb was to be killed by the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel. The sacrifice was to be, as it were, a great public act, in which all the nation conjointly was to have a hand. And can it ever be forgotten how memorably this was exemplified in the murder of our Lord? Did not all with one accord, the Roman governor and the Jewish king, the priests and the people, the scribes and Pharisees, conspire to persecute and to slay him? Torn and divided by clashing interests on every other point, they agreed in nothing save in deadly hatred to the Saviour. Not content with the bitter mockery of the thorny crown, the blows and scourging which had been inflicted on him, the assembled nation, collected around the hall of Pilate, as if with one voice, raised aloft the loud and universal shout, saying, "Away with this man. Crucify him, crucify him; and let his blood be upon us and our children!" The blood of the paschal lamb was not, like that of other sacrifices, to be poured upon the ground. I month Abib, and on the evening of that day. We No; it was to be treated with the reverence and know, from the Evangelists, that, by the hand of respect due to every thing set apart for a sacred a mysterious Providence, in that month, on that and religious use. It was to be received into a day, and at that very hour, while the priests were basin, and sprinkled, not on the threshold, where busy in the temple slaughtering the paschal victims the foot might tread, but on the lintel and the of the nation, that nobler victim, which they all door-posts. Surely a speaking emblem this of the prefigured, was nailed to the cross, and bowed his precious blood of Christ-that object of highest head, and in due time gave up the ghost. esteem and warmest affection to all who know its peace-speaking power-that costly treasure of the Church, which, in the heavenly sanctuary, is continually presented by our Great High Priest to the Father, in expiation of human guilt, and which, woe be to the man who dares to profane or count an unholy thing. Not a bone of the paschal lamb was to be broken. And how memorably the hand of God brought about the fulfilment of this particular in the case of the Saviour, is testified by St. John, xix. 32-36: "Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs....For these things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken." Its flesh was forbidden to be sodden with water; it was strictly enjoined to be roasted with fire, that terrible and destructive element. And thus was pictured forth the fierce and burning anger of the Lord, which the sins of a rebellious world had kindled, and which raged so hotly against him who put his soul into our souls' stead, and as our willing substitute bore the burden, and endured the punishment, of our transgressions. The paschal lamb behoved to be sacrificed in Jerusalem. On the first occasion, indeed, it was slain in Egypt, and for many subsequent years in the desert. But God had enjoined, that when the Israelites should be settled in Canaan, it was in the city and the place which he should choose to put his name, that they were to bring and slay their victims. Read the precept, Deut. xvi. 5: "Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of the gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee: but at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover." Accordingly, from the days of David, the whole nation made an annual visit to Jerusalem for this purpose. And, answerably to this it was, that in that guilty city, whose streets were already red with the blood of so many of God's messengers and prophets, stoned and slain by their countrymen for the testimony which they bore to Jesus, Jesus himself suffered and died. He had declared the necessity of this circumstance: "It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem." And again, "Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.” It but remains to mark one more coincidence: it is that of time. The paschal lamb was appointed to be slain upon the fourteenth day of the But however curious and instructive it may be to trace in these facts connected with the paschal lamb such lively and memorable points of similitude to the person and sufferings of our divine Master, there is a still deeper interest in tracing the analogy betwixt the ends and purposes for which they were respectively put to death. In the account of the institution of the passover, you learn the strange and memorable use to which the blood of the paschal victim was to be applied. The wrath of Jehovah was im- pending over a guilty land, and a guilty nation. Egypt had filled up the measure of her iniquities, and the hour of retribution, which had been for a while delayed to give space for repentance, had at last arrived. Long had the wrongs done to God's chosen people, the galling bondage, the fierce oppression, the emaciating and unprofitable toils to which they were condemned; long had the murder of the Hebrew babes, remorselessly consigned to the muddy waters and slimy crocodiles of the Nile; long the wailings of Israel's mothers, the despairing appeals of her hoary sires, and the curses and execrations which broke from her indignant youth; oh long had these ascended in mournful unison to heaven, calling for vengeance and retribution! Nor did they call in vain. Heaven heard, and interfered at last. Commissioned by Jehovah, Moses comes, knocked at Pharaoh's gate, and, in the name of Him by whom he was sent, demanded the deliverance of his injured people. The proud monarch despised alike the message and the threats of the prophet. Accordingly, plague after plague, the plague of the waters turned into blood, of the frogs, the lice, the flies, of the murrain, the boils and blains, the plague of the hail, the locusts, and the darkness, are sent in terrible succession, to waste the land, and awe Pharaoh into submission. Obstinate was his resistance; but who ever hardened himself against the Lord and prospered, who shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble? What Jehovah doth not bend, he yet can break; and, therefore, when all milder methods had been tried in vain, he resolved, by a last, a severe and dreadful stroke, to avenge at once the injuries of his people, and his own insulted authority. The destroying angel is summoned, and receives the dread commission that night to pass through Egypt, and, entering every door, to cut off the hope of the family. Not one was to be spared, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, to the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon, yea, and even the first-born of cattle. I attempt not to paint the terrors of that night, too dark and dreadful for fancy to conceive, or language to express. Think only of the sudden paleness and dying | all who bear it as the people of the Lord, and shrieks of the victims, smitten at every age, from securely protects them from the fiends of darkness feeble infancy to blooming manhood; think of the and the angels of destruction. The wondrous loud wailings of the distracted mothers, of the virtue of this blood has hitherto preserved the speechless agony of the bereaved fathers, and the world uninjured and the human race alive, and on general consternation and dismay that overspread the last day, the terrible day when God shall come the land, tying every tongue, and arresting the for judgment, it is only through the wondrous throbbings of every pulse. On that awful night, virtue of this blood that we can hope to escape the and amidst that universal havoc, how fared the fiery indignation which in full vials shall be poured people of the Lord? The Lord of Hosts was out upon the impenitent and unbelieving, involvwith them, and the God of Jacob was their re- ing them in everlasting and irretrievable perdition. fuge. Not only did they escape unharmed; they were not even afraid for the terrors of the night, nor for the pestilence that walked in darkness. A thousand fell at their side, and ten thousand at their right hand, but it did not come nigh unto them; only their eyes beheld the reward of the wicked. And to what did they owe their marvellous preservation? Behold upon the lintels and the door-posts of their houses those red and gory streaks, and see in them the mystic token, and heaven-appointed means of their safety and protection! Yes, brethren; they were saved by the blood of the paschal lamb: for the Lord had commanded them to take and sprinkle it on the lintel and side-posts of their doors, and he had promised a promise which he faithfully kept-that when he saw the blood he would pass over them, and not suffer the destroyer to enter into their houses to smite them, when he smote the land of Egypt. Finally, the ancient passover procured for Israel emancipation from bondage and oppression. As a means to that it was at first appointed, and as a memorial of it the Lord commanded the passover to be afterwards observed as an annual festival. Not only did the blood of the paschal lamb protect them from divine wrath, but it opened, as it were, the gates of their prisonhouse, and paved the way of their escape from Egypt. Terrified and amazed at the havoc which had been wrought, and seeing, in the safety of Israel, a palpable evidence that it was by Israel's God, and on Israel's behalf, that the vengeance had been executed, the Egyptians no longer desired their stay. The proud oppressor" rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said, rise up and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel, and go serve the Lord as ye have said." It is added, that "The Egyptians were urgent upon the people that they might send them out of the land in haste, for they said we be all dead men." Thus emancipated from their bondage, and no longer restrained, the children of Israel followed their heavenly appointed leader, and the same night which had been signalized by so great and memorable a deliverance, beheld the hosts of the Lord with their backs upon Egypt, where they and their fathers had dwelt four hundred and thirty years, and whose soil they had so plentifully watered with their sweat and their tears, travelling, with rapid pace, and with still more eager hopes, to the happy land of which the Lord had said that he would give it to them. And did you never hear, my brethren, of a like deliverance accomplished by a like means? Only a deliverance far more comprehensive in its extent and in which we have all a nearer interest. Surely you know that this globe which we inhabit, as a theatre of guilt and crime, and the race to which we belong, as the sinful posterity of a rebel and apostate sire, had provoked, like Egypt, the anger of Jehovah. Over the wide earth, created to be the happy abode of innocence and peace, but now profaned by our impiety and contaminated by our guilt, he might have sent forth the destroying angel, flying on the wings of darkness, and with the sword of vengeance in his hand, he might have commissioned him once more to execute a wide and indiscriminate havoc among the habitations of And surely, my brethren, it is not hard to see, men, cutting off not the first-born only, but son shadowed forth in this consequence of the ancient and sire together, yea, exterminating the guilty passover, the still more signal deliverance of God's species both root and branch. And what arrested people, in every age, from the spiritual thraldom the arm of vengeance? Why is it that we are of sin and corruption. Alas! by nature we are this day alive, blessed with so many proofs of our all bondsmen and slaves. The oppressed and toilheavenly Father's love, fed by his bounty, pro-worn brick-makers of Egypt afford but too sad tected by his shield, upheld by his arm, guided by his Word, and enriched by his grace? Why is it that we are permitted fondly to look forward to the better things which he has promised to do for us in a happier land beyond the grave? Our text alone can answer this question. It is because "Christ our passover was sacrificed for us." Through his blood alone have we obtained redemption. Taken by the hand of faith, and sprinkled upon the conscience, it becomes our shield and safeguard in every peril. The sacred token marks and close a counterpart to the state in which we are involved by nature, and in which we are all born into the world. Is there not a tyrant who lords it over us, proud, cruel, and inexorable as Pharaoh? Have we not within our bosoms severe and merciless task-masters, who impose upon us hard and bitter labours, and pay us no other wages but shame, and remorse, and eternal death? Not less intolerable nor less degrading is this bondage, because we sometimes are so infatuated as to love it, and so debased as to hug the chains which gall and disgrace us. Oh, where shall we find a deliverer to break our fetters and procure us emancipation? Look again to the great Paschal Lamb. "If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed." His blood not only shields from the penalties, but delivers from the power of sin and Satan. He gave it for our ransom, and, except itself, there is nothing in the universe which can supply motives persuasive and powerful enough to subdue our evil passions and move us to renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh, and to give ourselves up as the willing servants of holiness and God. "The love of Christ constraineth me," says the Apostle Paul," for I thus judge, that if one died for all then were all dead, but He died that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and who rose again." Let me only add, in conclusion, that we cannot reasonably expect to share in these blessings without a personal application of the blood of Christ. ILLUSTRATIONS OF SACRED SCRIPTURE, [Extracted from the Athenæum of July 22, 1837.] WINE must always have been a rarity in Egypt; for though its use was permitted to the priests, the people were only allowed to drink it at certain festivals, especially that of Artemis Bubastus, when, as we are informed by Herodotus, more wine was consumed than in all the year besides. At other times they drank a kind of beer made from barley. This liquor being used chiefly by the middle and lower castes, we are not to expect any details of its manufacture on the monuments. If there were any, it would be difficult to identify them, for, from the account given us by Herodotus, it is manifest that the Egyptian beer was a sort of sweet wort, it was but slightly fermented, and as no hops were used in the manufacture, it was probably made only in small quantities, as the occasion required. Yet, from the monuments, we infer that the cultivation of the grape was at one time popular in Egypt, though it could only have been cultivated with success in a few of the high-lying districts; and when commerce enabled the Egyptians to import wine from other countries, better and cheaper than they could manufacture it themselves, they had the good sense to abandon this unprofitable branch of industry, and direct their attention to commodities for which nature afforded them greater facilities. In the age of the patriarch Jacob, wine must have been manufactured in Egypt, else it is fair to infer that he would have sent it with the other products of Syria, which he gave to his sons, for the purpose of conciliating Pharaoh's minister, his unknown son Joseph. "Take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds." Gen. xliii. 11. But from the enumeration of the judgments that God was about to inflict on the land of Egypt, in the days of the prophet Isaiah, it would appear that the vines were not important, for their destruction forms no part of the prophet's denunciations against Egypt, as it does of his menaces against the Syrians and Chaldeans. Other circumstances, indeed, tend to prove that the cultivation of the yine was not very extensive; we find | it in almost every instance planted in the gardens; there are few, if any, separate vineyards. A greater number of labourers is found attending to the vines than to any that their cultivation required more than ordinary care, other horticultural produce; whence we may conclude, and was a luxury of the rich, rather than an occupation of the people. Great care was taken to keep the roots moist; they were inclosed by a mound or wall, and water was Belzoni brought to them by one of the labourers. found the grape-vine growing wild in the region of Fayoum, near the lake Moris; but from him, and from other authorities, we learn that the fruit is deficient both in quantity and quality. mies. The grapes, when collected, were conveyed in basThis was not a moveable kets to the wine-vat. utensil, but a cistern, either dug or built, generally the latter; when the fruit was collected in this receptacle, men and women were employed to crush it by treading. To this operation, there are frequent allusions in Scripture. Bishop Lowth has dwelt forcibly on the poetic beauty of the delineation of divine vengeance, by imagery borrowed from the wine-press, in Isaiah's description of the Messiah's victory over his ene"Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-vat? I have trodden the wine-press alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore, mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth." Isaiah xiii. 1—6. In this noble burst of poetry, the word "alone" has a peculiar emphasis, because it was usual for several persons to tread together in the wine-press. The crushing of the grapes, the spurting forth of the purple juice, and the dark stains on the vesture, naturally suggest an image of the waste and destruction ensuing from the triumph of some mighty conqueror. To the Hebrews, it was a familiar illustration, for, in their language, "blood of the grape" is an ordinary expression for wine. me. Treading out the grapes was an exhilarating empleyment; in all the representations of the process we imagine that we can see joy and merriment, proceeding even to extravagance, on the countenances of those engaged in it. This circumstance explains another image of divine vengeance in the prophecies of Jeremiah: "The Lord shall mightily roar from his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth." Jer. xxv. 30. We find women sharing the pleasing toil of grape-pressing; the Greeks, as we are informed by Anacreon, excluded them from an employment likely to inspire them with a love to the intoxicating juice. Indeed, so great was the general joy inspired by the vintage, that its cessation is one of the punishments denounced by Jeremiah against Moab: "And joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to fail from the wine-presses; none shall tread with shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting." Jer. xlviii. 33. We have a similar allusion to the joy of the vintage in Isaiah's denunciation,-which is also against Moab: "And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the pleasant field; and in the vineyards there shall be no sing |