call a water-melon hope, because of its tendrils which cling to a prop. The merchant trades and the ploughman ploughs in hope. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, Prov. 13. 12, and the hope of the wicked is as the giving up of the ghost, Job 4. 20-i.e., like the last puff of breath when the person is dying.

Hope is like an anchor in three points :

I. The anchor secures the vessel against tides or storms, Heb. 6. 19.

2. The anchor is out of sight, so hope dwells on things invisible, as Abraham hoped against hope in reference to the birth of Isaac, waiting 25 years, Rom. 4. 18. So Paul in the case of shipwreck, Acts 24. 15.

3. This anchor rests on the ground: the spiritual anchor is fixed not on the mud of this world, but on the rock of ages.

Maha Mudgar.-Day and night, evening and morning, winter and spring come and go; time sports with our passing age, still the wind of hope ceases not. The body dissolves, the head gets grey, the mouth becomes toothless, the handsome stick trembles in the hand, yet hope ceases not to jest with us.

Arab. He delighting in the world drinks the milk of vain hopes.

Bengal.-Dancing on an unbaked water-vessel.

Telugu.-Mountains are smooth at a distance and rugged when near.

Arab.-Worldly hope is like the mirage, deceiving him that sees it and hopes from it.

Telugu.-Measuring the air.

Talmud. Be very humble, the hopes of men are worms.
Arab.-Hoping from the vile is seeking fat in a dog's tail.
Tamul.-The crane hoping to eat dried fish when the sea
should be dried up, wasted away in vain hope.

Arab.—The more you hope the more you suffer.

The Arrows of God's Punishment.-DEUT. 32. 42.

"Arrows" mean God's judgments on the wicked, which often fly through the world to punish them. The lightning and tempest, war, pestilence, and famine, all may be his arrows to slay the ungodly, and to cut them off from the earth. So God threatened the inhabitants of Jerusalem by his prophet, Ezekiel, and assured them that for their wickedness he would "send upon them the evil arrows of famine," Ez. 5. 16.

Arrows wound quickly and unexpectedly; no noise is made; they stick sharply in the wounds; such are God's arrows of pestilence, Ps. 91. 5; famine, as in David's case, and the sword; Job said (6. 4) God's arrows of disease and the sword were within him; God's arrows for crushing the wicked are compared to treading down the grapes in a wine-press, Rev. 19. 15.

Persian.-God's club makes no noise, when it strikes there is no cure for the blow.

Arab. The corn goes from hand to head, but at last falls into the mill.

Turk.-Even the Indian elephant fears the gadfly. Mahabharat.-When men are ripe for slaughter, even straws turn into thunderbolts.

Japan.-No escape from the net of heaven.

The Axe of Punishment at the Root of the Tree.
MAT. 3. 10-12.

Time has been figured as a scythe mowing down the grass; here God's vengeance is compared to an axe. The King of Assyria is so called, Is. 10. 15.

The Church of God is often likened to a vineyard or garden of fruit trees, from which the owner looks for fruit in due season, and too often finds none. He is unwilling, however, to relinquish his hope of a return for all his labour, and continues year by year to prune with

the greatest skill, as well as patience, the plants which so ill-repay his toil.

However high and stately may be the tree, and however green and luxuriant its foliage, the time comes when the owner is tired with waiting for fruit, and trying the effect of only cutting off branches; he determines that he will lay the axe to the root, and remove the tree itself from the ground which might be so much better filled. See parable of Barren Fig Tree, Luke 13.

How fearfully the event, thus figuratively described, was accomplished, when the temple of Jerusalem was burnt, and the city taken by the Roman General; and how afterwards, when the nation rebelled against their conquerors, Jerusalem was utterly destroyed; and the miserable survivors sold in vast numbers as slaves!

What God wants is fruit, not leaves; however rich may be the foliage-in other words, however high the profession-it is utterly worthless in His sight, if there be not the true fruits of repentance.

The Soul bartered for the World.—MAT. 16. 26. Buddhagosha.-Evils follow the fool, smouldering as fire covered by ashes.

Malay. The loss of a little mustard-seed is observed, while that of an elephant is unknown.

China. To gain a cat but lose a cow.

Badaga. In trying to save a drop of ghe he upset the

ghe pot.

Tamul.-Is the foot to be cut off to try on a shoe?
Badaga. For the nourishment of a day he sacrificed the
food of a year.

Tamul.-Like burning down the house for fear of rats.
Shánti Shatak.-How vainly have I passed the whole of my
life! Alas! how inestimable a jewel have I
bartered for mere glass.

Panchatantra.-The fool, in seeking riches, suffers one hundredfold more than he who strives to attain eternal happiness.

Hitopadesha.-It is right to sacrifice one person for a

H

household, a family for a village, a village even for one's country, but for one's soul we should give up the world.*

Turk. For to save the head we sacrifice the beard.

Sinners are Blind.-REV. 3. 17.

The Atmabodh states, "The eye of ignorance does not behold God, as a blind man does not see the light." Sinners are like the blind, who are not able to see the sun, to know what colours and lights are; they see not the dangers in the road, Mat. 15. 14. Those naturally blind regret not seeing the light of the sun, and desire a guide; not so those spiritually blind; the eyes of the rich man's understanding were not opened till he reached hell, where he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, Luke 16. 23.

How

The man in the tombs was naked; the wicked are also blind; they see not the light of life, discern not the sun of righteousness; have no true knowledge of spiritual objects; nothing is nearer them than God, his unspeakable gifts, and their own heart, yet nothing is less known. How oft they stumble and fall into sin without any proper cause ! How constantly they wander out of their proper course, and mislead those who follow them! useless is the clearest light of the Gospel to them!hence they feed on the wind, Hos. 12. 1, and on husks, Luke 15. 16, Deut. 28. 29. Diseased in every way the wicked have the blindness of ignorance, the deafness of spiritual unconcern, the fever of impurity, the jaundice of malice, the swelling tympany of pride, the vertigo of inconstancy, the dropsy of covetousness, the palsy of stupidity, the rottenness of envy, the rheumatism of discontent, the delirium of constant levity, the moonstruck madness of passion and rage, hardness of heart, and the stings of conscience.

Chanak. He who has no sense, what does the Shastra do for him? What does a mirror do for a man

without eyes? What does an eloquent man * English. Sometimes the best gain is to lose. Mat. 5. 29.

where there are no hearers? What do washermen in a country of naked fakirs?

Sanskrit.-Is a lamp pleasing to the blind, a song to the deaf, or science to the fool ?

Sanskrit. He who regards other men's money as clods of earth, and all creatures as himself, he sees.

Persian.-He asked the blind man what

did he want; he said the sight of my two eyes. Mat. 10. 46. Servian.-Better sometimes a woman blind than one too

beautiful.

The Book of Life.-REV. 20. 12.

There are the books of Nature, Providence, Revelation, and here" the Book of Life"-an allusion to the register book in which the names of all the tribes and families of Israel were entered from generation to generation, so that their claims to property and to the privileges of their fathers could not be disputed, or a reference to a custom in the courts of princes, of keeping a list of persons in their service, of the officers in the armies, and even of the names of their soldiers. When it is said that any one is "blotted out of the book of life," this signifies erased from the list of God's friends and servants, like as those guilty of treachery are struck off the roll or list of officers belonging to a prince. There are also books of judgment, which are said to be opened, and the dead judged out of them according to their works, Rev. 20. 12; alluding to a custom of the Persians, to write down every day what had happened, the services done for the king, and the rewards given to those who had performed them, as we see in the history of Ahasuerus and Mordecai, recorded in the Book of Esther. Ex. 32. 32.

This book of life is the oldest book, Rev. 13. 8 ; it is written in Heaven, Heb. 12. 23; time destroys not its writing as it does that on tombs or pillars. The life it writes of is spiritual life, which differs from natural life in —(1) the Holy Spirit being the parent, I Cor. 15. 45; there is hidden manna to eat, John 6. 55; (2) eternal.