But there is also something which we may learn from the account of the fig-tree, although we may not possess the power which was once granted to the apostles. The fig-tree is a figure of the soul, in its barren and ungrateful state; a figure of too many souls in the Church upon earth. The leaves represent our profession of the true and living faith; and this, in the eye of many, is held sufficient to make us appear every thing that can be desired in religion. It may deceive our own selves; at a distance, it will deceive all men; because the discovery that fruit does not exist, can only be made on closer inspection. How beautiful and how full of life does such a tree appear; and yet it may be on the very eve of utter destruction and withering away!

How fair may a young Christian seem to promise! how full of hope may his early years appear! and yet, if his piety is not deep rooted in the soul, what is it but the leaves which shine in the sun and rustle in the breeze, and yet hide nothing truly valuable and good beneath them? How often is this fair profession found in all periods of life, sometimes more studied and sometimes less; delusive and disappointing to the true believer, as the fig-tree was when discovered to be barren, to the travellers who hoped to profit by its fruit! And how dreadful is the judgment which will hereafter be passed upon it by the Lord! His name is dishonoured by it; for in every one who calls himself a Christian there ought to be the fruit of holiness and good works. When the nominal Christian turns out to be only a thoughtless and empty professor, Satan has his triumph, and the world rejoices to find out and talk of the deceit. Thus is the name of Christ dishonoured. The Saviour Himself grieves at the loss of a soul from the living and true Church, but He cannot place among the finally redeemed those who resolve to go no further than the threshold of religion, who are content to produce only the show of leaves, and do not desire to have fruit abounding in their lives, which may glorify their Father which is in heaven. Nothing shows the existence of a dead state in the soul so clearly as our being contented to go on with a barren faith, and never seeking earnestly and with prayer to become fruit

ful branches of the living vine. So great ought to be our desire to become fruitful, that our prayers should be constantly directed to this point. We should be daily in supplication to God to make us bring forth fruit to His glory; and these supplications should be drawn as deeply from our hearts as any others which concern our own peace and prosperity. An earnest Christian will pray for this "with strong crying and tears;" for he will see every day how very far he is from being a truly fruitful tree in the garden of GOD, and this will fill him with grief and pain. O you who would appear before Christ at the day of judgment, without being ashamed before Him at His coming, let it often be in your recollection that you are daily in the situation of the figtree on the road to Bethany. The Saviour is daily visiting His Zion, who sees "afar off" every object which there belongs to Him. He "comes" to every disciple, if haply He may find fruit in him. He is examining us with all the care of the husbandman, and with all the earnest desire of the traveller. If there is fruit appearing, it is the result of His cultivation, and is therefore doubly dear to Him, and refreshing to His eye. If there is no fruit, it is on this account also the more painful. It disappoints His love and all His sufferings, and fails to afford Him of "the travail of His soul." And oh, it should be doubly painful and ashaming to the ungrateful soul which is in such a condition; for he should know that, if he thus continues unfruitful, he must be at the last rejected, whatever may be his name and whatever his former privileges and hopes. can never, indeed, if you are sincerely pious, rejoice in the sight of your own fruit. To you it should always seem but barrenness and unprofitableness, scarce and poor and unripe to the spiritual taste. There is but one Branch whose fruit can bear the scrutiny of the Heavenly Husbandman, and you must look to that for your hope and reward. But, nevertheless, where there is fruit it will appear; the Christian is not like Israel, "an empty vine, bringing forth fruit unto himself;" it is for the refreshment of others, not his own, that his good works are seen. The poor members of Christ's Body must

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taste the blessings of that charity which is the first fruit of the Spirit. All who come near must envy the sight and the taste of those good dispositions which bring forth good words and works. The fruitful tree itself will be the least sensible of them: and yet a change will be felt and witnessed with great joy, when the wintry nakedness of the branches is exchanged for verdure under the influence of the heavenly summer.

May every reader of these pages know this change, and humbly be grateful for it to God; acknowledging that he is naturally dead and without fruit, and that his life is hid with Christ in God, and that the best fruit he can labour to bear is to give "glory to God in the highest!"

THE BATH CHAIRMAN.

E.

How great a blessing, and what an advancement in happiness, and in every thing good, it is to be able to read! I was much struck by this reflection to-day, and greatly did I enjoy it, in my walk through the fashionable and beautiful streets of the city of Bath. There are always in such abodes of the wealthy and luxurious many hundreds, nay even thousands, of men occupied throughout the day, in waiting the pleasure of their employers, without having any immediate work to do, for hours together. There are numerous servants in attendance with the carriages, waiting at the doors where their masters or mistresses are visiting. Coachmen are sitting on the box with the reins in their hands, for many hours during the day. Then there are a great number of men who draw what are called Bath chairs, or little carriages for invalid persons, drawn by hand, slowly and gently, over the paved footways, to suit the infirmity of the aged or the sick.

Now it gave me a pleasing impression of this place, on visiting it for the first time, to observe that some of the first of these servants whom I happened to see, were engaged in reading, by way of occupying pleasantly the weary hours of their waiting. I was the more pleased, too, to observe that the books they were reading were good books, that is, religious books, and not of any

trifling or useless character. On approaching one man, of whom I had occasion to ask my way to a street I was going to, I observed that he was carefully reading and pondering a little pocket volume called "Daily Incense," which contains a prayer and a text, both from Scripture, for the morning and evening of every day. This, although small in size and containing but few sentences, would furnish to a serious mind plenty of reflection for a days in its little page. And so, I have no doubt, the man found it, for he was studying it very attentively. I could not help giving what little encouragement I could, by expressing to him how much pleased I was "to see him with so good a companion."

And when I next saw the driver of a carriage holding with one hand the reins, as he was waiting at a door, and in the other hand another good book which he was reading, I thought within myself, "How great a blessing it is to these men to be able to read!" How I wish that all servants, and every one besides, could read well enough to take the pleasure in it which these men have! And that all had masters, or mistresses, or pastors, who would put such good books into their hands and into those of every person in the land! Surely a blessing might be expected! Not only would Satan be deprived of his great opportunity, which he so generally takes advantage of, of finding "some evil work for idle hands to do;" but also God the Holy Spirit would be graciously speaking to the consciences and the hearts of the readers, and so the double blessing would be gained, of saving them from danger and conferring an immortal good. Except when we are reading, or hearing of spiritual things, what foolish thoughts are apt to possess the mind for very vacancy, and how much idle conversation flows from having no better thing before the attention at the time. And for all these things an account will have to be given! What an amount of these things would be spared if all were able to read, and if all would employ that talent in improving and useful learning. Oh! that is, after all, the chief matter: "not only to have the talent, but to use it aright; to have the heart and inclination to seek after the things of God, and not, as the

world, do only the things of men. This must be made the subject of prayer to God.

EXTRACT FROM MY FAMILY BIBLE.

MATTHEW Xvii. 1—14.

E.

Ar the end of the last chapter, our blessed Lord had been declaring the doctrine of a future judgment. He now takes three favoured apostles to see and hear Moses and Elias, who had been long dead, talking with Him in a state of transfiguration, or changed state of appearance, "covered with light as with a garment." (Psalm civ. 2.) Peter, always foremost in speech, was anxious to remain upon the mountain with his blessed Master, and the risen lawgiver and prophet; but it was not good in God's sight that it should be so. They had been brought there for a particular purpose, namely, to be made certain, by the witness of their own eyes, that God was the God of the living, and not of the dead: and they were to hear from God's lips, what He had before declared at the baptism of our Lord, that He was His "beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased" (chap. iii. 17); though, in this instance, they were to have this charge also from the Lord, that they were to "hear Him" in whom He was well pleased to save a world of sinners. Well, indeed, might the three apostles be frightened, and fall on their faces, at what they had seen and heard. They had seen their Master as they had never before beheld Him; they had seen two persons from the courts of glory, and they had heard the voice of God. But though our blessed Saviour had put on a part of His bright glory, He had not put off His tender feelings for His poor infirm disciples. He would not have them frightened. After the departure of Moses and Elias He touches them, and bids them rise, and not be afraid. They found Him the same that He ever had been, kind and affectionate. They had had evidence enough that He could put on glory when He was pleased so to clothe Himself. They had seen sufficient to make them fit witnesses of His power to come again in glory to judge the world. Mark here the wisdom of our Lord in charging them to keep silence upon what they had