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<t.:GOLDEN DAYS:+e=>
Tuly 29, 1882.
—+ INTERNATIONAL LESSON—FoR AUG. 6.:+-
Mark 11:12-23, Gotpen Txt, Joy 15:8
Subjects—The Fruitless
BY REV. D. P.
Fig-Tree and the Cleansed Temple.
KIDDER, D. D.
After His triumphal entry into Jeru-
salem, our Lord and His disciples had
thou;
spent the night at Bethany. Early the beea,
following morning, they again started
on their return to the city. They had
not tarried for breakfast. Indeed, it was
not the custom of the Jews to breakfast
early. An idea prevailed among them
that it was not becoming to eat before
the hour of morning sacrifice, which was
nine o'clock. _ :
: We may, therefore, suppose that our
Lord, in view of the urgency of His
work, preferred neither to wait for the
usual hour of eating with Ilis friends of
Bethany, nor to give them the inconve-
- nience of preparing Eis food out of the
accustomed order. .
He would rather avail Himself of some
opportunity of eating a little fruit by the
wayside, or in some other way provid-
ing for the bodily wants of Himself and
isciples.
THE FIGS OF PALESTINE.
Scarcely any fruit is so often mention-
ed in the Old Testament Scriptures as
the fig. We find a notice of the fig-tree
as back as in the third chapter of
Genesis, where Adam and Eve are said
to have sewed fig-leaves together and
made themselves aprons.
In the book of Deuteronomy, 8:7,
Palestine is called “a land of wheat and
barley and vines and tig-treesand pome-
rable in action. As said, in substance,
yy Trench, a parable is told as true, and
gh the facts are feigned yet is true,
use of the deeper truth which sus-
tains the outward fabric of the story. It
is true, also, because it is the shrine of
trutb, and because the truth which it
enshrines looks through and through it.
Even so a symbolic action is done as
real, as meaning something both higher
and deeper than. that which it professes
to mean,
Thus it was in this case. When our
Lord pronounced the doom of perpetual
withering and barrenness upon a pre-
tentious but barren fig-tree, he meant to
show how it would fare with a man or
nation when God came looking for fruits
of righteousness, and finding nothing
but the leaves of a boastful but empty
profession.
The tree represented the Hebrew peo-
ple, whose leaves or outward forms were
appointed to represent the acts or fruits
of holy living, but not being accom-
fanied by them becamea sham anda
lelusion.
As said by the Cambridge Bible:
granates.””
Mount Olivet was famous for its fig-
trees from ancient times. The very
name “ Bethphage,”’ signified * the place
for the green, or winter fig.”
The flourishing of fig-trees was spoken
of as a sign of prosperity, while the fail-
ure of their fruit was noted asa sign of
affliction. The numerous references to
figs and other. fruits, in the Scriptures,
show that they were a much more im-
rtant article of diet in the warm and
ry countries of the East than with us.
Ve may thus understand how the fig-
tree and figs came to enter so largely into
the typical instruction given by the Jew-
ish prophets and by our Lord Ifimself.
There were three species of fig-trees
known as severally producing early figs,
summer figs and winter figs. The latter
ripened after the leaves had fallen, and
would hang through a mild winter into
the spring. Fig-trees were not only cul-
tivated in fields or vineyards, but plant-
ed by the waysides, where the dust was
thought to promote their fruitfulness.
The facts above stated throw light up-
on the opening verses of our present
lesson.
“And on the morrow, when they. were
seeing a fig-tree afar off having
leaves, He came, it paply. Hemight find ny:
hereon: and when He came to it, He
e
d Jesus answered and said unto it,
No man eat fruitof thee hereatter forever,
And His disciples heard it.”
LEAVES WITIOUT FRUIT,
This event occurred inthe spring, when
fig-trees would not ordinarily have
leaves. The tree in sight, therefore,
showed an instance of premature leafing.
If it were of the winter-fig species, it
might be expected to have fruit upon it
of the former season. Or, if it were of
the early-fig species, it might have re-
presented a case of unusually early ri-
pening.
Thompson speaks of having picked
figs of this sort on Mount Lebanon, a
hundred ana fifty miles north of Jeru-
salem, in May. He, therefore, thought
it not impossible that the same kind of
trees might have ripened figs in April in
the warin, she:tzred ravines of Olivet.
But it was not the fault of this tree
that its fruit was not ripe—rather that it
was fruitless, notwithstanding the vigor
with which n put forth leaves.
Leaves were not merely a promise of
fruit-bearing, but a proof that the tree
had enjoyed all the sun, rain and soil
necessary to fruiting. .
It, consequently, represented profes-
sion without practice, and, in that cha-
racter, was made asubject of most im-
pressive typical teaching. .
The whole incident was symbolical—a
THE WITHERED FIG TREE
“The early fig-tree, conspicuous amon,
its leattess brethren, seemed alone to make
a show of truit,and to invite inspection.
So Israel, alone among the nations, held
forth a promise,
fruit be expected, but none was foun
though their harvest-time was past. T)
tore, Israel p s :
Gentile races—barren hitherto, but now on
the verge of their spring-time, were ready
to burst into blossom and bear fruit,”
THE CURSE PRONOUNCED AND FUL-
. FILLED.
- The barren fig-tree was, by Christ's
word and power, made a perpetual warn-
ing against both hypocrisy and useful-
ness, Not only did Jesus say to it: ‘No
man eat fruit of thee hereafter, forever,”
bu
“In the morning (of the next day), as
they (Christ and the disciples) passed by,
they saw the fig-tree dried up from the
roots,
“ Peter calling to remembrance,
saith unto IH, Master, behold, the fi, ee
which Thou cursedst is withered away.’
Some small critics have objected that
the words and act of Christ indicated
anger or vindictiveness. Reflection,
however, will show that Christ did not
attribute moral responsibility to the tree,
but that He did attribute to it a fitness
to represent mora! qualities, In so do-
ing He only followed the common use of
language as He had previously done in
His teachings by such sayings as the fol-
lowing:
“Every good tree bringeth forth good
fruit; but « corrupt tree bringeth forth
evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil
fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth
good fruit.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good
fruitis hewn down, and cast into the fire.
“Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know
them.”—2fat, 7: 17-20.
This view being accepted, it is easy to
see that Christ’s act sayored rather of
mercy than of wrath. Although a mira-
cle of judgment, and as such, His only
one, it was not, like those wrought in
connection with Moses and Elijah, at the
cost of many human lives, but only at
the cost of the life of a single insensible
ti
ee
Even this tree was not smitten
with lightning nor uprooted by a whirl-
wind. It was simply left to itself.
Jesus only withdrew from it that which
before had given it life and the chance of
fruiting. The earth, air and sun, which
before had ministered to its life, under
His command withheld their nourish-
inent, and it withered and died.
So it was to be with Jernsalem and the
Jewish nation. Their Lord and spirit-
ual King, having found no fruit, or only
evil fruit, in them, had only to stop
sending to them Prophets, or to with-
draw His grace and favor, and they, too,
would wither away.
So, too, it would be with us. If God
should “let us alone,’ or withdraw
from us His influences of grace and
truth, we soon should perish spirit-
ually, as indeed we should physic-
ally if He should withdraw. from
us the vital air.
_A LESSON OF PAITH.
Our Lord’s own application of the act-
ed parable of the fig-tree was in these
wi :
“Jesus answering,
mee ans ering, saith unto them, Have
“For verily I say unto you, That whoso-
ever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou
removed, an: thou cast into the sea;
in his heart, but shall
that those things’ which he saith
shall come to pass; he shall haye whatso-
ever he saith.” : .
Here again is highly figurative lan-
guage. Butit is used to frustrate the
plain and important precept, ‘Have
faith in God.”? Not nature but God is
the giver and sustainer of life, and hu-
man faith is the agency that avails itself
of divine power for appropriate objects,
“This mountain,” having reference to
Olivet, on which they stood, represented
difficulties, or obstacles, in the way of
personal salvation or the spread of truth.
* 1 mountains were he ol
stacles that they needed to have removed.
No good could come from sending Olivet
or Hermon int;
man empire
The Jewish
je were to be overe
4
3
4
o
oa
af
=
p
&
3 into the sea were
compared with these things."—Peloubet >
oe
THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE.
“And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus
went into the temple,and began to cast
out them thatsold and bought in the tem-
ple, and overthrew the tables of the money-
changers, and the seats of them that sold
oves;
“And would not suffer that any man
should carry any vessel through the tem-
%
ey
“And He taught, saying unto them, Is it
not written, My house sball be called of all
nations the house of prayer? but ye have
made it a den of thieves.”
This striking passage illustrates the
shameful desecration which by degrees
had crept into the temple, and which,
by the indifference or connivance of the
priests, had come to be an established
custom, :
The great apartment called the Court
of the Gentiles had been turned into a
market, in which animals and doves
designed for sacrificial use were sold
and bought, and where Jews from dis-
tant countries could exchange their for-
eign coins,
Such scenes of traffic gave rise to
fraud, wrangling and disorder, destruct-
ive of all ideas of sacredness and purify,
At the very beginning of His public
ministry, Christ had undertaken to re-
form these abuses by driving out of the
temple, with a scourge of small cords,
them that sold oxen and sheep and
doves, and the changers of money, say-
ing to them, “Make rot my father's
house a house of merchandise” (John
2313-17). But they had returned in
force, to be again cast out and rebuked
with a still sterner denunciation.
Nothing could exceed the display of
moral power by which, in His character
of teacher and representative of the true
God, Jesus confronted these sanctioned
abuses, and made cowards of all who
racticed and permitted them. Even the
Eoribes and chief priests feared when
they saw how all the people were aston-
ished at His doctrine. But instead of
obeying and honoring Him, “they
sought how they might destroy Him.”
What an illustration of human wicked-
LESSON HYMN.
What grace, oh, Lord, and beauty shone
Around Thy steps below !
What patient lo
hy life and death of woe!
For ever on Thy burdened heart
A weight of sorrow hung,
Yet no ungentle, marmurig word
Escaped thy governed tongue,
Thy foes might hate, despise, revile,
‘hy friends unfaithful prove,
Unwearied in forgiveness still,
Thy heart could only love,
—Sir Edward Denny.
VACATION.
If you must be off and away on @
summer vacation, why, then, the Lord
go with you, and besure that you ask
Him to go along. There are only too
many professed Christians like the little
girl who, on the eve of her summer
hegira, said, at the close of her usual
rayer:.‘*Good-by, Lord, till we come
ack jn the fall.” If any man or
woman, worn down with long-continued
strain of work, can have the privilege of
resting awhile in some quiet place—cool-
ing the fevered brain and relaxing the
nerves so tensely strung—it is a thing to
be profoundly thankful for, But, ifany
rofessed Christian should find his re-
igion such a weariness that he feels it
necessary to give that a vacation also,
then the sooner he shuffles off entirely
the form of godliness he wears, the bet-
ter; for it is nothing better than a delu-
sion and a snare.
No one who goes away from home in
the summer-time, or at_any other time,
can afford to leave his Bible behind him;
nor can he afford to slight the Lord’s
house or the Lord's Day. Such service
ought not to be a wearisome, but a re-
freshment ; for they that wait upon the
Lord shall renew their strength.” And
if Christians, when they take vacation,
would only take their Bibles with them,
and, wherever they find themselves,
would lay hold and help—strengthen-
ing the weak places and building up the
waste places—what fragrant memories
they would leave behind them in their
summer homes, in little Sunday-schools
and humble churches; and what a glow
they would carry away with them in
their own hearts and to their own homes.
. Sa
~Goodness, in whatever way we look
at it, never sleeps, It is holy life, beat-
ing march with the heavenly tunes; sing-
ing always the divine psalm of love.