The unripe fruit has little beauty, little flavour; is plucked with difficulty from the tree. But let the air and light, the warm sun and the fruitful showers, unite to swell it, and to ripen it; it is beautiful, it is sweet, falling from the bough into the hand of him that touches it. In Gal. 5. 22, 23, the fruits which the righteous ought to bear are described; those of the wicked are given Gal. 5. 19-21; the barren fig-tree was cut down, Luke 13.7. Afghan.-Cold is not kept out with a "for God's sake," or "for the Prophet's sake," but with four seer (2 lb.) of cotton-i.e., cotton is used to stuff quilts and make them warm. Telugu.-Worship without faith is a mere waste of flowers -i.e., flowers are used in worship. Chanak.-Learning placed only in books, and wealth in the hands of others, are of no use, as not available in time of action. Arab.-Where the mind inclines, the feet lead. Love climbs mountains. Arab. There are three things never hidden: love, a mountain, and one riding on a camel. Persian.-Love and musk do not remain concealed. China.-To come to the river wishing to fish is not enough; you must bring the net in your hand. Sadi. Though the water of life from the clouds fell in billows, And the ground were strewn over with paradise loam : Yet in vain would you seek, from a garden of willows, To collect any fruit as beneath them you roam. Oriental. Expecting good fruits from the wicked is draining swallow's milk, plucking a hog's soft wool, sands yielding pomegranates. Bengal.-One knows the horse by his ears; the generous by his gifts; a man by laughing; and a jewel by its brilliancy. Tamul.—Will the tiger's young be without claws? Arab.-A learned man without works is like a cloud without rain. Rabbins.-A basket full of books-i.e., a man of knowledge, but without using it. Sanskrit.-A fallen woman is dead. Panch Tantra.-As shade and sunlight are ever closely joined together, so an act and the agent stick close to each other. The Earth waxes old as a Garment.-HEB. I. 10-12. The earth itself is millions of years old, and has changed its garment—i.e., the surface—many times. The Himalayas were once islands in an ocean which covered all India, and the Bay of Bengal washed the foot of the Himalayas. India was once not a continent but an archipelago; its present mountains were then islands, while the valley of the Ganges was formed from the earth brought down from the mountains. England itself was then a tropical climate; sharks, alligators, and elephants lived there, though it is now too cold for them. The heavens will be folded up as a scroll, Is. 34. 4, Rev. 6. 14. Arab. The garment of salvation never grows old, Is. 59. 17, Ps. 104. 2. China. The pleasure of doing good is the only one that will not wear out. Hebrew.-All flesh waxeth old as a garment. Bhagavatgita. As their old garments men cast off, anon new raiment to assume; So casts the soul its worn-out frame, and takes at once another form: The weapon cannot pierce it through, nor wastes it the consuming fire; The liquid waters melt it not, nor dries it up the parching wind; Impenetrable and unburned; impermeable and undried: Perpetual ever-wandering, firm, indissoluble, permanent, invisible, unspeakable. The Strait Gate and Narrow Way to eternal Life. The Katha Upanishad of the Yajur Veda states, "The way to the knowledge of God is considered by wise men difficult, as the passage over the sharp edge of a razor." Though the way to heaven does not allow the unclean or lions to pass on it, the wayfaring man, though a fool, may find it, Is. 35. 8; it is not like the broad way, crowded, or on an inclined plane, or easy like a boat going with the tide, or ending abruptly as Sodom did in brimstone; the way of transgressors is hard, as Samson, Judg. 16. 16, Saul, 1 Sam. 31. 4, and the licentious found, Prov. 2. 18, 5. 11; Josiah found the way that seemed right to him ended in death, 2 Chr. 35; the way of life goes to the eternal city, John 14. 6; the broad way has many on it and is easy, leading to death, Prov.. 4. 19. Arab. The ascent to virtue steep; the descent to vice smooth. Persian.-The water of life is in darkness-i.e., search is necessary. Persian. Travel the highway, though it be roundabouti.e., short cuts are dangerous. Hitopadesh.-A stone is rolled up a hill by great exertions, but is easily thrown down. The Girdle of Truth.-EPH. 6, 14. Some girdles are made of gold or fine linen, yet are perishable; but truth is immortal; as the Russian proverb states, Truth is not drowned in water, nor burned in fire, and the Bengali proverb, "False words and sprinkled water remain not long." Better totter in our bodies than in our words. Truth means the unleavened bread of sincerity, I Cor. 5. 8. The Shanti Shatak, treating of the marks of the friends of truth, states "they have as a father patience, as a mother forgiveness, as a wife peace of mind, their heir truth, their sister pity, their brother temperance, the earth their bed, their garment the air, and wisdom their nectar.' The Markanda Purana writes of truth : Through truth only the sun shines, on truth the earth stands, To speak the truth is the highest duty, on truth the heaven rests; Though we weigh a thousand Asvamedhs against truth, Yet will truth outweigh a thousand Asvamedhs. Hypocrisy and malice are called leaven as being sour,. and making other things sour, working secretly, puffing. Leaven also, from its diffusive nature, symbolized the rapid spread of the Gospel, Mat. 13. 33. Nathaniel was an example of sincerity, a man without leaven, John 1. 47; such was Paul. Truth or sincerity is like a girdle in seven points :— 1. A belt used by soldiers to protect the stomach and vital parts. We are told to gird up the loins of our mind, 1 Pet. 1. 13—i.e., restrain earthly affections. 2. Cleaves close all round: therefore the clothes were not easily loosed. The righteous should not turn to the right hand or the left, 1 Kings 13; as the Bengali proverb, "One foot on land, another on water." 3. Strengthens the loins: gird up thy loins, 2 Sam. 22. 40; God girds the loins of kings, Job 12. 18; sincerity strengthens, 1 Kings 20. II; sincerity is the girdle to faith, hope, love, Matt. 6. 22. 4. A preparation for battle, Ps. 65. 3: a war of words. necessary to contend for the faith, as the righteous is a soldier. 5. A preparation for travelling, as the garments were long; so Elisha's, 2 Kings 4. 29; so the spiritual pilgrims have to travel far, and the storms of persecution will blow away loose garments. 6. Preparatory to serving: so the servant ploughed with loins girt, Luke 12. 35. 7. An ornament, covers the joints of the armour, hides seams; sincerity covers low birth even in one of low descent, Is. 43. 4; it covers poverty. All are yours, I Chr. 3. 22. China.-An untruthful man is iron without steel; An untruthful woman is rotten grass and tangled hemp. Afghan.-To lie is to leap from the house-top-i.e., a leap in the dark. Bengal.-A hero's word and an elephant's teeth remain fixed. Talmud.-Lies have no legs. Bengal.-Only a shrimp moves backward; only a mean person backs out of his word. Turk.-The house of a liar is burned, but no one believes it. Bengal.-In promise he puts the moon in your hand. Seeing through a Dark Glass.—1 Cor. 13. II. The eastern mirrors were made of polished steel, or brass, hence the sky is compared in Job 37. 18, to a molten looking-glass. The Moorish women in Barbary hang looking-glasses on their breasts. There were in Paul's time no windows of glass, but talc or horn ones; through these people saw very dimly; and such is our vision now of God's attributes, and of the mysteries of religion; Providence is a wheel within a wheel, Ez. 1. 16. Ships get on the rocks in a fog. Russian.-At night all cats are grey. Tamul. As the blind quarrelled about an elephant they had examined. Afghan. The frog mounted on a clod, said he had seen Kashmir. Japan. A small-minded man looks at the sky through a reed. Japan. To lap up the ocean with a shell. |