Ford gives a quotation from Perkins which deserves reading, "The common opinion is, that if a man die quietly, and go away like a lamb, (which in some diseases, as consumption, any man may do,) then he goes straight to heaven. But if the violence of the disease stirs up impatience, and causes frantic behaviour, then men use to say, 'There is a judgment of God, serving either to discover a hypocrite or to plague a wicked man.' But the truth is otherwise.-A man may die like a lamb, and yet go to hell; and one dying in exceeding torment and strange behaviour of body, may go to heaven."-(Perkins' Salve for a Sick Man.)

3.-[Ye shall all likewise perish.] It is highly probable that these words were spoken with a prophetic meaning, and that our Lord had in view the tremendous slaughter of the Jews by the Roman army under Titus, which was to take place in a few years at the siege of Jerusalem.

4.-[Those eighteen...tower in Siloam.] We know nothing about the circumstance which our Lord here mentions. It is probable it was something which had lately happened, and was the common subject of conversation among dwellers in Jerusalem, just as any great accident is among ourselves at the present day.

The word translated "sinners" in this verse, means literally, "debtors."

5.-[Except ye repent, &c.] The repetition of this sentence shows the general importance of repentance, and the great need in which the Jews in particular stood of it. Ford quotes a saying of Philip Henry's, which is worth reading: “Some people do not like to hear much of repentance. But I think it so necessary, that if I should die in the pulpit, I should desire to die preaching repentance, and if I should die out of the pulpit, I should desire to die practising it."

LUKE XIII. 6-9.

6 He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard: and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.

7 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?

8 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till shall dig about it, and dung it:

9 And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

THE parable we have now read is peculiarly humbling and heart-searching. The Christian who can hear it,

and not feel sorrow and shame as he looks at the state of Christendom, must be in a very unhealthy state of soul.

We learn, first, from this passage, that where God gives spiritual privileges He expects proportionate returns. Our Lord teaches this lesson by comparing the Jewish Church of His day to a "fig tree planted in a vineyard." This was exactly the position of Israel in the world. They were separated from other nations by the Mosaic laws and ordinances, no less than by the situation of their land. They were favoured with revelations of God, which were granted to no other people. Things were done for them which were never done for Egypt, or Nineveh, or Babylon, or Greece, or Rome. It was only just and right that they should bear fruit to God's praise. It might reasonably be expected that there would be more faith, and penitence, and holiness, and godliness in Israel than among the heathen. This is what God looked for. The owner of the fig tree "came seeking fruit."

But we must look beyond the Jewish Church if we mean to get the full benefit of the parable before us.-We must look to the Christian Churches. They have light, and truth, and doctrines, and precepts, of which the heathen never hear. How great is their responsibility! Is it not just and right that God should expect from them "fruit ?"-We must look to our own hearts. We live in a land of Bibles, and liberty, and Gospel preaching. How vast are the advantages we enjoy compared to the Chinese and Hindoo! Never let us forget that God expects from us "fruit."

These are solemn truths. Few things are so much forgotten by men as the close connexion between privilege

and responsibility. We are all ready enough to eat the fat and drink the sweet, and bask in the sunshine of our position both as Christians and Englishmen,—and even to spare a few pitying thoughts for the half naked savage who bows down to stocks and stones. But we are very slow to remember that we are accountable to God for all we enjoy; and that to whomsoever much is given, of them much will be required. Let us awake to a sense of these things. We are the most favoured nation earth. We are in the truest sense upon a fig tree planted in a vineyard." Let us not forget that the great Master looks for "fruit."

We learn, secondly, from this passage, that it is a most dangerous thing to be unfruitful under great religious privileges.

The manner in which our Lord conveys this lesson to us is deeply impressive. He shows us the owner of the barren fig tree complaining that it bore no fruit: "These three years I come seeking fruit and find none."-He describes him as even ordering the destruction of the tree as a useless cumberer of the ground: "Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" He brings in the dresser of the vineyard pleading for the fig tree, that it may be spared a little longer: "Lord, let it alone this year also." And He concludes the parable by putting these awful words into the vinedresser's mouth: "If it bear fruit, well and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down."

There is a plain warning here to all professing Churches of Christ. If their ministers do not teach sound doctrine, and their members do not live holy lives, they are in imminent peril of destruction. God is every year observing

them, and taking account of all their ways. They may abound in ceremonial religion. They may be covered with the leaves of forms, and services, and ordinances. But if they are destitute of the fruits of the Spirit, they are reckoned useless cumberers of the ground. Except they repent, they will be cut down. It was so with the Jewish Church forty years after our Lord's ascension. It has been so since with the African Churches. It will be so yet with many others, it may be feared, before the end comes. The axe is lying near the root of many an unfruitful Church. The sentence will yet go forth, "Cut it down."

There is a plainer warning still in the passage for all unconverted Christians. There are many in every congregation who hear the Gospel, who are literally hanging over the brink of the pit. They have lived for years in the best part of God's vineyard, and yet borne no fruit. They have heard the Gospel preached faithfully for hundreds of Sundays, and yet have never embraced it, and taken up the cross, and followed Christ. They do not perhaps run into open sin. But they do nothing for God's glory. There is nothing positive about their religion. Of each of these the Lord of the vineyard might say with truth, "I come these many years seeking fruit on this tree and find none. Cut it down. It cumbereth the ground." There are myriads of respectable professing Christians in this plight. They have not the least idea how near they are to destruction. Never let us forget that to be content with sitting in the congregation and hearing sermons, while we bear no fruit in our lives, is conduct which is most offensive to God. It provokes Him to cut us off suddenly, and that without remedy.

We learn, lastly, from this parable, what an infinite debt we all owe to God's mercy and Christ's intercession. It seems impossible to draw any other lesson from the earnest pleading of the dresser of the vineyard: "Lord, let it alone this year also." Surely we see here, as in a glass, the loving-kindness of God, and the mediation of Christ.

Mercy has been truly called the darling attribute of God. Power, justice, purity, holiness, wisdom, unchangeableness, are all parts of God's character, and have all been manifested to the world in a thousand ways, both in His works and in His word. But if there is one part of His perfections which He is pleased to exhibit to man more clearly than another, beyond doubt that part is mercy. He is a God that "delighteth in mercy." (Micah vii. 18.)

Mercy founded on the mediation of a coming Saviour, was the cause why Adam and Eve were not cast down to hell, in the day that they fell. Mercy has been the cause why God has borne so long with this sin-laden world, and not come down to judgment. Mercy is even now the cause why unconverted sinners are so long spared, and not cut off in their sins. We have probably not the least conception how much we all owe to God's longsuffering. The last day will prove that all mankind were debtors to God's mercy, and Christ's mediation. Even those who are finally lost will discover to their shame, that it was "of the Lord's mercies they were not consumed" long before they died. As for those who are saved, covenant-mercy will be all their plea.

And now are we fruitful or unfruitful? This, after