rush into one of our churches and slaughter the communicants at the Lord's Table. Some of the people who had probably been present at the time— it is likely the event had occurred at Jerusalemcame and told our Lord of this tragic event. "And Jesus answering said unto them, 'Suppose ye that these Galilæans were sinners above all the Galilæans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.' The Lord's answer was, as often, an answer to their thoughts rather than their words. He probably saw that they looked upon the persons who had been overtaken by such fearful judgments as peculiarly under God's wrath, otherwise they thought He would not have permitted such things to befall them. Christ does not deny that they might have been sinners-criminals-but He tells them that their fate was no proof that they were peculiarly such. And He repeats this assertion: "Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." They were all in the same predicament, a sentence of like fearfulness was suspended over the heads of all-over the nation as a nation, over each individual, so far as he was neglecting to cast in his lot with Christ. "A He then proceeds to indicate by a parable what was their actual position in relation to God. certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, : Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?' And he answering said unto him, 'Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.'" The application of this significant parable to the state of the Jewish nation is easy. God had set them in His world like a fig tree planted in a vineyard. He had watched year after year for the returns of righteousness which He had a right to expect from all the advantages with which they had been favoured. He found none, and the command would have been at once issued to root them up, but for the possibility that some more vigorous culture might yet produce the desired result.* They were now upon their last trial. Three years we may suppose the Saviour Himself had been seeking fruit and found none, as to national conversion. They might fairly have been at once swept away, but they had yet the further trial of the Descent of the Spirit and the Apostolic mission. That too was in vain, and then we find that the sentence was executed, and their national existence cut down by the Romans. But we must apply this parable to ourselves. After all, nations are made up of individuals. From every one of us God comes seeking fruit-the fruit of simple hearty obedience—a fair return for the care He has bestowed upon us. Does He find any? Are we really intending to serve Him? * See Isaiah v. 5, 6; Hosea xi. 8. Is it the principle of our life? Does it enter into our thoughts to make this return for all the advantages He has given us? If not, we have need to pray earnestly to God that He will give us yet a little longer trial; for He might justly cut us down at once, and when we have this reprieve we have need to lose no time in using it, for depend upon, it it is but a reprieve; the year of grace will come to an end, and then He will not suffer us to cumber the ground any longer. There are two incidental truths in this parable which we must not overlook. One is that those who bear no fruit cumber the ground. They are in the way-obstructions to good. Do we not see this? One cold-hearted person chills and checks the honest enthusiasm of others. He is ever ready to suggest difficulties, sneer at aspirations, advise delays, and in various ways blight all that is promising around him. What wonder then that the master of the vineyard should order him to be cut down? The other is the blessed truth contained in those words, "Lord, let it alone this year." We gather from them that God never gives up any while there is hope of them, whilst there is anything to be made of them. But we cannot see when this is the case. Some who seem to have a great deal that is pleasing about them, may nevertheless have hearts which will oppose every effort to bring them to God, whilst others, who seem hard and hopeless, only want sufficient pains taken with them to become fruitbearing trees in God's vineyard. SECTION XXI. CURE OF THE INFIRM WOMAN-CAUTION AGAINST "AN HEROD. LUKE Xiii. 10-33. ND He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.* And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself." : It was during, or after the synagogue service, that the Lord's attention was arrested by the sight of this poor woman, bent together under the power of some disease, in which it would appear (from ver. 16) there was something of a spiritual agency concerned. "And when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.' And He laid His hands on her and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God." But the burst of joy and gratitude with which the poor crippled creature received this great and unsolicited blessing, was met by very different expressions in another quarter. "And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, and said unto the people, 'There are six days in which men ought to work in them therefore come and be *It is probable that by this time our Lord might have quitted the district to which He at first retired, as St. Luke says, in the 22nd verse of this chapter, that "He went through the cities and villages journeying toward Jerusalem." But St. Luke is not thought by ommentators to have observed exact chronology in the sequence of ents, so that we cannot draw any certain conclusions from his rative. |