lak, conveyed to him by the princes of Moab, | heart, was given in order to make trial of his fidenotwithstanding his resolution not to go beyond lity, that he was being placed in the way of tempthe word of the Lord. Here you will observe tation, and that it was now no less his interest the heart of Balaam evidently drawn away of his than his duty to have besought the Lord, that if own lust, and enticed; the lust of Balak's prince- he really desired him to go on this way of temply bribes was, at this point in the process of his tation, he would hold him up, and preserve him spiritual declension, conceiving, and was about to from falling. But far otherwise was he minded; bring forth death. Balaam was already guilty, he seems eagerly to have embraced the opportualready had he sinned against God, and God, in nity afforded him of gratifying the avarice and amrighteous displeasure, in holy judgment, granted bition of his heart, the gods whom he really served, him that after which his heart went, for we are although he still feared the Lord, and willingly told at the 20th verse of the 22d chapter, "That kept out of view the obvious truth that these lusts God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto could not be gratified except by disobeying Him him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and to whose service he was professedly devoted. “On go with them." This divine permission, granted the morrow Balaam rose up, and saddled his ass, to the prophet, to go with the princes of Moab, and went with the princes of Moab." Though in will doubtless surprise some, as apparently incon- all this Balaam seemed only to follow the comsistent with the previous express prohibition, and mand of God, still was his way, the secret way of divine determination that Israel should be blessed, his heart, that way which was known perfectly to and not cursed; but the design of the Lord was God, though concealed from human observation, to make trial of his servant, and though he tempts perverse before the Lord;" "therefore was the no one with evil, still he often, in order to prove anger of the Lord kindled against him." Obstahis creatures, and know what is in their hearts, cles are now thrown in his way, such as should allows them to be led into circumstances of temp- have reminded the unhappy prophet that his heart tation, otherwise, to what end the prayer taught was not right with God, that his way was indeed by our Lord himself, "Lead us not into tempta- a perverse one. The Lord can make use of any tion; but deliver us from evil ?" Had Balaam instrument to effect his purposes, for all are his addressed such a petition to God, we may be as- creatures, and may consequently be turned to sured that he never would have been permitted to whatever purpose he sees fit. Accordingly, he go with the princes of Moab, into the midst of employed the animal on which Balaam rode, to temptation, but Balaam, so far from praying to be shew and reprove him for his sin: but so harddelivered from temptation, courted it; he doubt- ened was his heart, through the deceitfulness of less rejoiced greatly on getting permission to go sin, that the unwonted conduct of the poor pato the court of Balak. Had he seriously thought tient animal, who had on no previous occasion, of the danger to which he was exposing himself, through a long course of service, ever so acted, of being led to sin against God, nothing would failed to recall him to a sense of his perversity tohave grieved him more than such a permission, wards God. He vents his fury on his unoffending but, on the contrary, he seems joyfully to have beast, without once thinking of inquiring the reaembraced the opportunity, which might offer a chance of his being endowed with the gifts held out to him by Balak. God gave him up to the lust of his own deceived heart; and so is it with all apostatizing professors. Is there any one, who knows anything of spiritual life, and its trials, and temptations, who has not experienced something of the same nature? who may not recall occasions when his heart was devoted to some forbidden pleasure, which the law and providence of God interdicted, but after which it secretly went, although despairing of being ever able to gratify itself; when, suddenly, circumstances seem all to conspire to lead to the longed-for gratification, the obstacles which lay in the way are all removed, as by the hand of an approving God, all but the unchangeable interdict of the divine law, which can never, in any circumstances, or however plausible the opportunity, countenance sin. The Lord, by permitting Balaam to go with the princes of Moab, did by no means countenance or encourage his perversity; he solemnly reminded him at the time, that he was to say nothing but as he should be commanded to do. Balaam could not but have felt, that the permission which he received, to go to fulfil the secret desire of his son for its unwonted conduct. Thus, when Providence graciously opposes us in the fulfilment of our lusts, do we, like the prophet, vent our disappointment in insensate wrath against the harmless agent employed to reprove us, without reflecting that we are, in reality, angry with and fighting against God. At last the angel of the Lord reveals himself to the astonished prophet. Then at length is he made to see the perversity of his way; but is he truly humbled and penitent? Ah, no! True, indeed, when he saw the angel of the Lord standing in his way, and his sword drawn in his hand, he bowed down his head, and fell on his face. True, also, after being told that his way was perverse before God, he confesses that he had sinned, and offers to go back again if it displeased Him that he should proceed; but in all this there are no symptoms of genuine repentance, "of that godly sorrow, which needeth not to be repented of." His prostration was of the body alone; and what else could he do, on perceiving the angel of the Lord with a drawn sword? And his conditional offer to return is obviously insincere and reluctant. He already knew that his way was perverse before God; he needed not, then, have said, It becomes us, then, with urgency and fre our divine Redeemer, who himself suffered being tempted, "Lead us not into temptation." We cannot, indeed, hope to escape temptation, for it is appointed to all; but for our encouragement, let us remember the declaration of the apostle, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." SKETCHES OF THE PARISH. BY THE PASTOR OF THE PARISH OF E -K. [From an Address delivered on the beginning of "Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding."-1 CHRON. xxix. 15.-1st, The shadow is only a picture or rude image of the body whose substance it represents. 2d, The true shadow is in its nature and appearance black and dark, like the blackness and darkness of yesternight-it is gone. 3d, The shadow is fleeting and transient: it is here-it is there, amid spots of sunshine on our hills,--but there is none abiding. 4th, The shadows are all lost, or swallowed up, in the dark dreary shade of the night-the long night of the grave-" until the day break, and the shadows flee away"-"turn, then, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart, upon the mountains of Bether." "if it displease Thee:" such is not the language | little can we tell, when once we admit sin to of true, humble repentance; there is no abandon- lodge in our hearts, to what it will lead. "Lust, ment of his heart's lust, his soul still went after conceived, bringeth forth sin-sin finished, death." his covetousness. God "with the froward will Sin is the most reproductive of all evils; every show himself froward;" he will "recompense their single instance of it contains the seeds of myriads way upon their own head." Thus he dealt with more. Balaam, and thus also he deals with his backsliding people to the present hour. Balaam is again per-quency, to make use of the prayer dictated by mitted to prosecute his journey, to walk after the sight of his eyes, and the imagination of his heart. Let us remember, that sin is not the less provoking to God, because it is permitted. We cannot look on the sacrifices which, in conjunction with Balak, Balaam offered, in any other light than the weak attempts of the infatuated prophet to alter the fixed purpose of the unchangeable Jehovah: indeed, he is forced to admit, that such was his purpose, for he owns "that God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent, and that there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither divination against Israel." True, the Lord turned the intended curse continually into a blessing, and, through the lips of the reluctant Balaam, announced the blessings and promises of the Gospel; but Balaam was not, on that account, the less, but the more guilty; his heart did not cease to go after his covetousness, even when his lips declared the blessedness of the righteous, and breathed a sigh after their last end. He still loved the wages of unrighteousness, the rewards of divination were still present to his mind, and doubtless he regretted as much, if not more, than Balak, that he was not permitted to curse Israel. All this is made evident from what is briefly recorded of the subsequent conduct and fate of Balaam. Though the record be very concise, yet we may gather, that after his discovery night had, indeed, covered the earth; but that very of the fruitlessness of his enchantments and divi- night, though the first and a cheerful night of our year, the soul of one of our number was required from among nations against Israel, he was left of God to atus. The sun was not again for her to gladden the little tempt to gratify Balak, and secure his rewards cottage by the stream. She had numbered full threeand honours, by the destruction of Israel in ano- score years and ten; but were not many of these years ther manner. It was by his infamous counsel, labour and sorrow? There are some near us now, who that the Moabitish women were introduced into understand well what we mean: yet there is but one to whom the shadow of the meagre and sickly form of the camp of God's people, and were but too suchis mother, enveloped in and darkened as with a cloud cessful in seducing them from the worship of the of smoke, passes before his mind's eye, and calls up the Lord to idolatry. Such is the rapidity of the de-feelings of filial affection, and causes him to sigh inclension of unrighteous ways, that the very man wardly, and to whisper to himself, "Aye! her history whom we have heard exclaiming, "How goodly are is before me as a tale that has been told." thy tents, O Jacob! and thy tabernacles, O Israel !" we may shortly after find furnishing, for the sake of Balak's paltry wealth and honour, the infamous counsel which I have now adverted to. Alas! how little did his death and last end correspond to his wish, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!" Found by the Israelites among the enemies of God, he was miserably slain. What an instructive history! How full of warning to us! Let us be careful how we forsake, even by a hairbreadth, the right way; for we know not, when we do so, how far we may ultimately go astray. Doubtless Balaam little thought, when first he allowed Balak's princes and bribes to lodge all night with him, what the issue of that temptation would be; as YOUR days on the earth are as a shadow, but they are the shadow of a substantiality with regard to you. On the first day of the last year, we were admonished, among other things, to reflect on these words: "Our days on the earth are as a shadow." The shades of On the second day of the second month of the year, death again made his inroads amongst us. The victim of his choice was but eleven years old. A parent yet remembers that child's hopes as he spoke them. Like the son of the Shunamite, he said to his father, "My head, my head!" To his mother he expressed his desire of being remembered by a grave-stone! He knew he should die that he should sleep with his little brother that he should meet with him in glory! In the third week of the third month of the year, fever, with all its attending fears, entered our retired district, and spread days of darkness and nights of gloom through some of our family dwellings. One child, just opening as a bud, was nipt away; and now sleeping in the dust, near to the place where we are met, lips, as from the grave, to us, "Your days on earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. In the fourth week of the fourth month of the year, a fourth individual was summoned to appear before the tribunal of her God. She had numbered more than fourscore years. To me she was little better than a stranger; for she had but lately come to reside within our bounds. She was most anxious and desirous of cultivating my acquaintance. I feel yet ashamed, and blush to repeat what she mentioned to me at our first meeting, viz., that no clergyman had been in her house for the long period of fifteen years! On her deathbed she sent for me, but on reaching the solitary glen, where she had her habitation, I found her a corpse! "Our days, O Lord, thou hast determined, and the number of our months are with thee!" Two graves in one day were open in our little cemetery, and received their respective inhabitants: one, a youth of little more than twenty years, the descendant of him who taught many of you to read and repeat these words of Scripture, "our days on the earth are as a shadow:" the other, a wife and a mother, and a support to the church which was of her house. Her sagacity and worth were known to many of you; but her history is now, "like the tale which has been told." An aged woman, whose robust ungainly figure, uncouth appearance, peculiar dress, address, and looks, are still fresh in your recollection, was next removed from this scene of trouble. She was poor and friendless, yet contented. No! she was not friendless; but she had no relative to sit by her bed to watch her in her dying moments; she had none to shed over her the tears of affection. In her case, the goodness of a gracious Providence was surely most apparent. He does all things well! She was not of us as a Church, but she appeared to be for us as a Christian. There is yet another, and one, perhaps, the most familiar to the mind of the most of us here. He was long, long known in our neighbourhood. As he was approaching his extreme old age, you saw him lessening and lessening in size; and you may have heard him speak of himself in the words of the patriarch, "Mine eye is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow." When his tongue, at last, was paralysed which had often uttered things new and old, and often in an original form-his expressive eye spoke them in the language of nature, intelligently as an eye could speak them. When he was all but subdued by his trouble, he would weep, then rally from his weakness: his honest and honourable look would beam on you more freshly, and the manly independence which had long ruled in his breast, though only as a shadow, was again apparent. Nay, his whole character through life may be summed up as founded on this resolution: "I will retain mine integrity; I will not let it go so long as I live." "But we are strangers before thee, O Lord, and sojourners, as were all our fathers; our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding." But there cannot be a shadow without a substance, or a body from which the shadow is formed. remonies of the law of Moses were shadows of good things to come; but the apostle says, "the body is of Christ." (Col. ii. 17; Heb. x. 1.) The Gospel, and all its promises of happiness, are the shadows of the glory which is to be revealed. And time, or our days allowed us as preparatives for eternity, are but as shadows, and shadows of that everlasting" Oh! eternity, eternity, how are our boldest, our noblest thoughts lost and overwhelmed in thee!" Seven, as you have heard, have, in the course of the last year, been removed out of the shadows of time into all the realities of eternity. One only at most two-of these used to meet with you in this house of God; but the bodies of them all are committed to these grounds to moulder around the walls of our little Zion. Nearly three times the number of those who have been removed by death, have, during the past year, been baptized into the Church of Christ; so that a loud cry, in urgency, seems thrice repeated to every parent, "Train The ce up your child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it;" to your spiritual pastor, how unworthy soever of the trust and of the name, "Give them, therefore, warning from me." Four of these infants were on one day presented together before God, and we named over them, as we pronounced their names, that great and terrible name-the LORD thy God. Two families have been added to our number since we last reckoned the families which form our flock. A brother and sister of one family are two of the number of these two families. Such are some of the events which have taken place in the shadowy days of the year which is gone Now, should a stranger ask me, "What good have you been doing among the people of the Lord, in this place, during the past year. Tell us briefly; we have no time to trifle away, for our days on earth are but as a shadow, and there is none abiding?'" I cannot affirm that I have done any positive good; but I have more and more the conviction that the power and sufficiency must be of GOD. I fondly hope and trust, however, that the seed of the Gospel has not been sown in vain. There are many whom I scarcely ever observe awanting in the house of God on the Sabbath, from the one end of the year to the other. Is not this a presumption, at least, that they look on "the Sabbath as a delight, the holy of the Lord and honourable, and do honour him?" It is very true, there are individuals, and even a few families, we can scarcely ever count on, their visits are, at best, but "few and far between." But there are many, as I have stated, whom I am sure to meet with here every Sabbath, and to be delighted with their fixed attention, and devout deportment, during all the holy services of the day. Further, I think I have the affection of most of my flock for my work's sake, feeble although my attempts and efforts may be; and I can truly say, if I know anything of myself, that there is not one within the bounds prescribed for my labours, but what has my affection and my prayers. "Brethren, pray for us, for my heart's desire and prayer to God for you is, that ye may be saved." Above one hundred and thirty of us sat down together lately at the table of our Lord, and paid our vows to him in the presence of all his people. Ten of these joined with us for the first time, being fully double our ordinary number; and I think there is something more, that I cannot describe, to make me augur that "my labour has not been in vain in the Lord;" and though our days on earth be as a shadow, they are the shadow of a happy eternity awaiting us, when many of us shall meet in our Father's house of many mansions, to sit down at a table that shall never be withdrawn. But should the stranger again say, "Make full proof of your ministry: What are the subjects you have preached to this people, and how have you preached them?" The numerous and varied discourses, and the manner of our preaching them, my friends, is known to you. Among the many subjects to which we directed your attention, in the course of the last year, those on the personality and agency of the Holy Spirit claimed much of our attention, and occupied much of our time. We stated and illustrated from Scripture "that there is such a being as the Holy Spirit,' that he is a divine person,' "that he is a distinct person in the Trinity," "that he is in every respect equal with God the Father and God the Son," "that he dwells in the hearts of believers," "that he regenerates and sanctifies them," "that he instructs and teaches them," "that he comforts and strengthens them," "that he seals them for glory," "and that he is in them the earnest of eternal life." 66 We next directed your attention to the "gifts of the Spirit," as enumerated by the holy apostle in his 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, (xii. 1-11.) Having discoursed at some length on these different gifts, we considered, lastly and particularly, some of "the fruits" produced by his holy operations, as stated in the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, (verses 22-25 :) "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with its affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." Such are some of the subjects which have occupied our attention in the course of the past year. My friends, call them up again! If they appear to you but as a shadow, let me press on you but once more,they are a reality, and a reality for which we must render an account on the great day of reckoning. Awake, thou that sleepest-the shadows of the night are gone the day star has arisen the sun is at his meridian already he lingers on the horizon, and only till we tell you that the shadows of the evening are lengthening and lengthening, and becoming the darkness of the night, which summons us to walk through the dark valley of the shadow of death. But the voice said cry,—“ All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness of man is as the flower of the grass." Oh! "our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding!" THE VINE. BY THE REV. DAVID MITCHELL. THE vine is a tender shrub, and produces fruit called grapes, from which wine is extracted. It prospers best in warm and dry climates, and is found bearing fruit in the southern countries of Europe, and in several parts of Asia aud Africa; but it does not bring forth grapes to perfection in our native land, unless when nourished by artificial heat. When the land of Canaan yielded its strength, it was called by God a land of vines, and it brought forth the grape in great profusion. The vine flourished luxuriantly on the mountains of Lebanon, in the valley of Sorek, and by the brook of Eshcol. There were many varieties of this plant known to the Hebrews, and among these, there was a marked distinction observed between the wild and the cultivated. The prophet Jeremiah employs this distinction with great force and beauty, when he describes the care and munificence of God towards the Jews, and their barren and unproductive conduct in return," Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?"-Jer. ii. 21. : There was a plant noticed by the Jews, which grew in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea, called the vine of Sodom, which brought forth noxious fruit, containing poisonous qualities. Michaelis imagines that the vine of Sodom is the solanum or night-shade, resembling the "white vine in its leaves and fruit, which is vinous but poisonous, and which the Arabs call fox-grapes." Moses alluded to this plant, when he was addressing the congregation of Israel before his death; when he directed their attention to the Rock of their strength, and pointed out the stability of the God of Jacob; when he told them of the immeasurable distance that lay between Jehovah and the idols of the heathen who at that time inhabited Palestine, he said, "Their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps." -Deut. xxxii. 31-33. The Jews were particularly careful in selecting the ground for their vineyards. The site chosen generally was either in a fertile plain, or on a declivity slanting to ward the south. Some places in the land of Canaan were much better suited for this purpose than others; the mountainous district in the neighbourhood of Shechem, on the west of Jordan, which belonged to the seed of Joseph, was renowned in Israel for the productiveness of its vineyards: "Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abi-ezer? Judges vini. 2. The place chosen was carefully fenced in, cleared of stones and rubbish, and cultivated with great nicety. The wine-press was in general made in the vineyard, and formed by digging a pit in the ground, then lining it with mason work. There was sometimes also a temporary booth erected within the enclosure, consisting of little more than a few poles, for the accommodation of the keeper who watched the fruit. "He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper maketh."-Job xxvii. 18. It appears, from several passages in the Word of God, that there was more substantial accommodation provided for the keeper than what has now been mentioned, there was a tower built for the convenience of the watchman, and to furnish him with a view of the whole enclosure. Some have thought that this building was erected for containing the implements necessary for making the wine, but we apprehend, that whatever use may have been made of the lower part, the grand design of the erection was a watch-tower, where the whole vineyard could be seen at one view. This opinion is supported by the testimony of modern travellers in the East. When Mr Buckingham was on his route through the Holy Land, he was struck with the appearance of several small square towers in the midst of the vinelands, and found, upon inquiry, that they were erected as watch-towers, to enable the watchmen to protect the fruit. The foregoing description will lead us to perceive the appropriate language of our Saviour in the parable, when he delineates the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, which is the house of Israel," There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a wine-press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country."-Matt. xxi. 33. Great care was exercised by the Hebrews in training up the vine, in cultivating the branches, and in directing the young shoots. They sometimes built a lower wall within the outer, and used great dexterity in leading the fruitful branches over it. They were also in the habit of entwining the tender shoots on trellises over a well, to furnish a refreshing shade for the family during the heat of the day. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall."-Genesis xlix. 22. Equal care was observed by the vinedresser in pruning the vine and in taking away the withered branches; we have a forcible allusion to the care of the husbandman, when performing this part of his duty, in the Gospel according to John, where Christ describes the watchfulness and fidelity of God toward his people, and their union with Christ as the source of their life and nourishment,-"I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit."—John xv. 1, 2. The Jews were in the habit of obtaining three crops from the same vine yearly. This triple produce was regulated, in some degree, according to the labour of the. vine-dresser, who cut away the branches at stated intervals. These crops were ready in rotation in the months of August, September, and October. The principal vintage seems to have followed the wheat harThe grapes were cut with the sickle and put into baskets, those for raisins were dried in the sun, and those for wine were cast into the wine-press. The Israelites were commanded to leave a portion of their grapes to those who were not so highly favoured as themselves. They were enjoined to abstain from gleaning their vineyards, and desired to leave a remnant to the poor and the destitute in the land,-" Thou shalt vest. and fulness of Christ's kingdom, when he shall pour out his spirit upon all nations: "The mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt."-Amos ix. 13. The wine of Lebanon was in high repute amongst the Jews, and also the wine of Eshcol, but the kind most esteemed seems to have been red wine; so fond were the Hebrews of this colour that they were in the practice of tinging their wine with a kind of wood, to give it a red appearance: "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright: at the last it hiteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder."-Prov. xxi. 31, 32. The Greeks and Romans were in the habit of using perfumed wines. The Jews sometimes acidulated theirs with the juice of the pomegranate. I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate."-Solomon's Song, viii. 2. The bottles into which the ancients put their wine were made of the skin of a goat or of a kid. They were large, and contained a considerable quantity. When new they were capable of sustaining much pressure, without any danger of being rent, and could preserve new wine during fermentation, but when old they did not answer that purpose: "No man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred but new wine must be put into new bottles."-Mark ii. 22. not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord."-Lev. xix. 10. At an early period the juice seems to have been squeezed out of the grape by the hand, and drunk immediately. When the butler of the king of Egypt told his dream, which is supposed to have been in accordance with the custom of the country, he said to Joseph, "Pharoah's cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharoah's cup, and gave the cup into Pharoah's hand."-Genesis xl. 11. The wine, however, was generally obtained by treading the grapes in the wine-press. This was a season of great mirth, festivity, and delight. When God denounced his judgments against Moab, it is mentioned, as a proof of his vengeance, that the joy of the vintage should cease,"In the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there he shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage-shouting to cease."-Isaiah xvi. 10. The garments of the treaders were coloured and stained with the blood of the grape. The Prophet Isaiah gives a lively emblematical representation of this work, when he describes Christ's victory and triumph over his enemies," 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-fat? 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." Some have explained this passage as descriptive of the sufferings of Christ, referring to the time when he endured the wrath of Almighty God as the substitute of the guilty,when his great and immaculate soul was in travail, when it pleased the Lord to bruise him and put him to grief; but we apprehend that a careful perusal of the passage, in connection with what follows, will convince the diligent inquirer that it refers to Messiah's conquest over his enemies. A similar figure of speech is applied to the foes of our Lord, in the book of Revelation,-"And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of God. And the wine-press was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thou-hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, sand and six hundred furlongs."-Rev. xiv. 19, 20. The wine appears to have been drunk, upon some occasions, immediately after the treading of the grapes. This seems to have been done by the men of Shechem, when they joined in league against Abimelech: "They went out into the fields, and gathered their vineyards, and trode the grapes, and made merry, and went into the house of their god, and did eat and drink, and cursed Abimelech." Judges ix. 27. The new wine was sometimes poured into old casks, containing the lees of former years, which greatly enhanced its value. afterwards filtered and drunk with much relish. The Prophet Isaiah alludes to this practice when he describes the choice feast, and the goodly viands which Christ has provided for the spiritual nourishment of his Church and people: "And in this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined." It was There are various kinds of wine mentioned in the Word of God. There was a kind of vinegar made from the grape, and used for domestic purposes: "At meal time come thou hither and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar."-Ruth ii. 14. Sweet wine was much esteemed by the orientals. The Prophet Amos refers to this kind of wine in describing the glory : There are many emblematical allusions to the vine in the Word of God, and also to its fruit. The Church, under the Jewish dispensation, which was typical of a more exalted state of things, was compared to a vine. God is represented as having planted it, and cultivated it with great care: "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river."-Ps. lxxx. 8-11. The blessings of the Gospel have been figuratively unfolded to man as the fruit of the vine. They have been pressed upon our attention as the food of the soul, just as wine is a cordial for the support of the body; "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money: come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price. Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? and let your soul delight itself in fatness."-Is. lv. 1, 2. There is one thing of which the fruit of the vine is an emblem, which should render wine an interesting subject of contemplation to every child of God, and that is the blood of Christ, the blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This emblem was adopted by Jesus himself; on the night before his death, "he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, drink ye all of it: for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins," that blood which puts to silence the thunders of Omnipotence, restrains the arm of vengeance, and the band of judgment,-that blood which cleanseth the sinner from his vileness, and the polluted from his guilt of a crimson die,-that blood which gives rest to the burdened spirit, ease to the brokenhearted, and peace to the troubled mind,-that blood which opens up the way of access unto the throne of God, converts the frown of justice into a pledge of peace, and changes the gate of death into a path of life,—that blood which is the passport to eternal glory, and which will enable those who enter the regions of bliss to lift up their voice and say, "Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever." Amen, |