soul growing up into the image of a covenant God, was in the words of the king to the royal bride:-- "How fair art thou, Beloved, and how pleasant! Thy stature is like a palm" (Song vii. 7). The coming calamity announced by Joel was to extinguish all these pleasant thoughts; for the palm and all the trees of the field were to be blasted, and joy itself was to "wither away from the sons of men." To the drought was added the terrible visitation of the devouring locusts. This chapter (ii.) is chiefly devoted to the description of the appalling ravages of this "great people and strong:"-"A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained; all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall; they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army; for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?" (ver. 3-11.) It is worthy of notice that the name anciently given to these insects illustrates the strong expression in verse 3-locust locus, "a place," and ustus, "burned and scorched." The entomological place of the locust has been pointed out under Deut. xxviii. 38-which see. Nearly all travellers in Asia and Africa refer to the havoc committed by this "army of God." The Arabians make a locust address Mahomet "We are the army of the great God; we produce ninety-nine eggs; if the hundred were completed, we should consume the whole earth and all that is in it." "Here," says Dr. Thomson, "on the side of this mountain above Fûlîyeh, I had my first introduction, some twenty years ago, to the far-famed locusts of the East. . . . . Never shall I lose the impression produced by the first view of them. I had often passed through clouds of flying locusts, and they always struck my imagination with a sort of vague terror; but these we now confronted were without wings, and about the size of full-grown grasshoppers, which they closely resembled in appearance and behaviour. But their number was astounding; the whole face of the mountain was black with them. On they came like a living deluge. We dug trenches, and kindled fires, and beat, and burned to death 'heaps upon heaps;' but the effort was utterly useless. Wave after wave rolled up the mountain side, and poured over rocks, walls, ditches, and hedges-those behind covering up and bridging over the masses already killed. After a long and fatiguing conquest, I descended the mountain to examine the depth of the column; but I could not see to the end of it. Wearied with my hard walk over this living deluge, I returned, and gave over the vain effort to stop its progress. By the next morning the head of the column had reached my garden, and, hiring eight or ten people, I resolved to rescue at least my vegetables and flowers. During the day we succeeded, by fire and by beating them off the walls with brushes and branches, in keeping our little Fig. 161. Wire-Worm (Grub of Alaus oculatus). garden tolerably clear of them; but it was perfectly appalling to watch this animated river as it flowed up the road, and ascended the hill above my house. At length, worn out with incessant skirmishing, I gave up the battle. Carrying the pots into the parlour, and covering up what else I could, I surrendered the remainder to the conquerors. For four days they continued to pass on toward the east, and finally only a few stragglers of the mighty host were left behind. In every stage of their existence these locusts give a most impressive view of the power of God to punish a wicked world. Look at the pioneers of the host-those flying squadrons that appear in early spring. Watch the furious impulse for the propagation of their devouring progeny. No power of man can interrupt it. Millions upon millions, with most fatal industry, deposit their innumerable eggs in the field, the plain, and the desert. This done, they vanish like morning mist. But in six or eight weeks the very dust seems to waken into life, and moulded into maggots, begins to creep. Soon this animated earth becomes minute grasshoppers; and, creeping and jumping all in the same general direction, they begin their destructive march. After a few days their VOL. II. 3 X voracious appetite palls; they become sluggish, and fast, like the silkworms, for a short time. Like the silk-worms, too, they repeat this Fig. 162. a, Cecidomyia tritici. b, The same, natural size. c, Cocoon. d, Antenna of the male. e, An ear of wheat attacked. fasting four times before they have completed their transmutations and are accommodated with wings. I do not remember to have seen this fact in their history noticed by any naturalist. In their march they devour every green thing, and with wonderful expedition. A large vineyard and garden adjoining mine was green as a meadow in the morning, but long before night it was naked and bare as a newly-ploughed field or dusty road. The noise made in marching and foraging was like that of a heavy shower on a distant forest." The two chapters now noticed supply many most striking illustrations of the tremendous agencies for judgment, which are ever in the hand of Jehovah, in forms which man least regards "Unconscious, not unworthy, instruments. Omnipotence works in them, by them, with them." Joel The theme, as a whole, is deeply interesting and suggestive. seems to have given more attention to it than any other writer of Holy Scripture. A brief notice of the general subject may be useful here, both to set us in direct sympathy with the views of this prophet, and, also, to show us that the same God works in similar ways still. The destructive power of insects may be looked at-1st, in connection with vegetation; and 2nd, with animal life. Every tree has not only some characteristic insect form which preys on its wood, leaves, or fruit, but most have many, either limited, or common to them with others. The larvæ of the procession moths feed on the leaves of the lime-tree. In a few nights a colony will strip a noble tree bare. These moths inhabit a commou nest during the day, which they leave at night, in order to feed, returning again to it as morning draws near. In social habits, another larva of one of the small moths (Hyponomeuta padella) is very hurtful to the foliage of the apple-tree, while that of the apple moth (Carpocapsa pomonella, fig. 164) preys upon the apple itself. An allied species (Earis chlorana) is figured on Plate XXXIX., Fig.165. Fig. 166. Sarrothripus cribralis. a, Melolontha vulgaris. b, Larva. c. Pupa. d, Antenna of male. e, Profile of the abdomen. fig. 1. The influence of various forms of plant-lice, Aphides, on vegetation is well known. These increase at an almost incredible rate in a I have more than once witnessed an extended avenue of noble season. trees despoiled of their beauty by the ravages of these tiny creatures. They sometimes become a perfect plague over wide areas. The Aphis lanigera produces each year ten viviparous broods, and one which is oviparous, and each generation averages one hundred individuals. Corn crops are specially liable to the attacks of insects. Some of their enemies work under ground, as the wire-worms, or skip-jacks, as they are popularly named. These are the grubs of beetles. Ten or twelve of the most destructive species belong to the elaters (Elaterida). Many of these inhabit the soil for three to five years before they come to maturity, and all the while they prey on the roots of cereals. But the most destructive of all is the well-known wheatmidge (Cecidomyia tritici), before whose ravages whole fields of wheat have been destroyed. Its egg is deposited when the wheat begins to Fig. 167. flower, at the root of the flower leaf. A species of thrips (Limothrips cerealium) is also much dreaded by the husbandmen. It preys chiefly on the grain, from which it extracts its natural moisture. The grain then shrivels up, and becomes, in rustic speech, "pungled." Pasture-lands suffer in their turn from the larvæ of the craneflies (Tipulida), and those of several beetles. The common cockchafer's grub (Melolontha) devours the roots of the grass-and in years favourable to their increase, or in localities in which man, blind to his own best interests in the matter of worldly profit, has waged an exterminating war against the birds which feed on them-they commit great havoc on pasture-lands. All countries have their character Tso-tso (Glossina morsitans). |