he says, “Take a bunch of figs." Figs are the emblems in the Word of God, and in nature, of the virtues of everyday life. They were the common fruit of Palestine. They were planted on the way-sides, and as they stood with their noble leaves and their nutritious and pleasant productions, inviting, useful, and delicious everywhere, they represented the good man whose fruits of integrity and kindness are the true products in their season of his religion in the path of duty, genuinely right and cheerfully rendered. The fig-tree in this respect is frequently referred to in the Divine pages. In the book of Judges, it was one of the trees invited to become the king, and it is represented as refusing, and saying, "Should I forsake my sweetness and my good fruits, and go to be king over the trees?" (ix. 11). Far better is it to be useful ministers in the walks of daily life, and desire to bless others in the genuine performance of our duty, than to seek pre-eminence over our fellow-men in the vain desire to rule. Good figs are represented as corresponding to good people, in the prophecy of Jeremiah: "Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good; for I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land" (xxiv. 5, 6.) The fig-tree which the Lord Jesus went to examine, as He passed along the way from Jerusalem, desiring to find fruit, but only realizing leaves, was the symbol of the Jewish Church of the time, plenteous in profession-abundance of leaves, but totally wanting in good fruit. The good fruit of the fig-tree corresponding to the lowest virtues-external acts-the lesson afforded is that the Jewish Church at that time was not only not productive in the higher excellencies of exalted love or wisdom, but even the homely virtues were wanting. They had made the commandments of God of none effect by their traditions. Take a lump of figs, then, would mean, determine to do good, to perform kind and just acts to the person against whom you have strong dislike. The great law of loving our neighbour as ourselves, is often felt to be difficult of exercise towards persons who are disagreeable to us. The exclamation will sometimes be heard,-" How can I like people whom I don't like ?" I wish I could alter my disposition towards such or such persons, but indeed they are very disagreeable. cannot pretend to be pleased with them when I am not pleased. It would be hypocrisy. Religion cannot require that. The Divine method in our text tells us what to do. We cannot I directly or immediately alter our interior disposition, but we can determine our acts. We can embrace every opportunity of doing good, that is, of doing right to every one, and when we compel ourselves to do kind acts towards those to whom we have felt bitterly, the Lord will alter the disposition. You get the lump of figs, the Lord will heal the boil. Oh, it is a sad thing to have a rankling spirit of enmity where love, joy, and peace should prevail. Yet sometimes jealousy, pique, prejudice, a readiness to take offence, will embitter the soul towards those with whom there should only be loving intercourse. We fasten upon every little word, look, and act, and gather matter of offence; and the boil which gives us excruciating pain continues and increases. Take the Divine counsel. Look up to the Lord, and determine to do them good. Look out for an opportunity of serving them. It does not imply that we should fawn and flatter those for whom we have no respect, but we should desire really to serve them, and rejoice in the opportunity of performing towards them acts of real justice, real kindness, and real good. Do this, and the mental boil will disappear in three days, or when your kindness is fully carried out, and you, like Hezekiah, will recover. A kiss for a blow. "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them that despitefully use you." These constitute the Divine method, and they are infallible in their power of healing. But often the irritating boil is not even the bitter feeling induced by an enemy, but the misconception, the misconstruction, the misunderstanding of the spirit and language of our friends—of those who really mean well, and who, when they see by our kind actions that we desire their good, will at once reciprocate, and change the gloomy frown into a cheerful smile. What we most need in the world is sympathetic love, is open-hearted kindness. Vast numbers of persons mean well, but want helping out. They may be weak, and they may sometimes fall; but a kindly word and a kindly act will often strengthen them, and allure them back to good. The Lord helps all; we should help each other. If we would strive to do this, and actually apply this spirit of kindness to our souls, we should find our own boils to disappear, and in blessing others we should ourselves be blessed. "Do good and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest; for He is kind to the unthankful and the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." SERMON XXXIX. THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB'S ARMY. "Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the King of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord."-2 KINGS xix. 32, 33. THE second great empire of the world's early history was Assyria. That of Babylon was the first. In the vast and fertile plains watered by the Euphrates and the Tigris, arose those mighty nations; and burning with the lust of power, they extended their conquering efforts far and wide. They had an amazing career. They began in feeble communities. By constant growth and cultivation they attained to conditions of magnificence only equalled by the mightiest states of modern times ; having capitals of a size and splendour which seem, as ancient history recounts their glories, almost beyond belief. After a lengthened existence they sank so low, that scarcely anything remained of them but their names, and certain vast mounds, the wonder of the wandering Arab. So passes the glory of the world. "Ambition vast, at which the world grew pale, Assyria, at the time of the siege of Jerusalem alluded to in our text, was at the summit of its extraordinary splendour. Nineveh was its capital, a city sixty miles in circuit, containing probably a million of inhabitants, and including in its palaces embellishments of art and magnificence only surpassed by the most splendid examples of modern times. It was an offshoot from Babel, and in time surpassed its parent state. We are informed in Genesis that "Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went Ashur, and builded Nineveh" (x. 9-11). U Babylon and Assyria had a most interesting existence and history, as presented to us in Holy Writ. We meet with them first in the peculiarly allegorical portion of the Word; and they would therefore represent persuasions or religions of that early time.* They next fixed themselves in towns and cities and governments, and became immense empires, dominating the then known world; and lastly, when they disappeared as nations, they were still retained in the Divine Word, on account of their spiritual signification. Hence, we find Babylon in the book of Revelation, hundreds of years after its entire destruction as a nation and a city, as a symbol of the dreadful lust of spiritual power over the souls of men; that unhallowed lust which in Babel in very ancient ages, and in the Rome of more recent times, has been the mother of delusion, uncharitableness, and persecution; the stimulant of separation, strife, and ill-will. Assyria was formed out of Babel: "Out of that land went Ashur, and builded Nineveh." In these simple words we have revealed to us the Catholicism and Protestantism of the very remote times. The same things under other names. The lust of power clothing itself in ceremony and superstition is Babel. The intellect protesting against delusion, striving for knowledge, intelligence, and rationality, denying the unproved to the extent sometimes of doubting all that cannot be exhibited to the senses, is Assyria. The proselytizing spirit which craves influence not for real good, but for the sake of power, out of which both the Babel and the Assyria of ancient times arose, is what is really meant by hunting before the Lord, or Jehovah, which is ascribed to Nimrod: "Even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord." To hunt souls before the Lord, is to seek to proselytize men that the proselytizing zealots may rule over them, or make gain by them. It is to have a creed which may easily accord with pride, vanity, and selfishness, in a thousand forms, and seek, by cajoling and vehement zeal, to obtain for it numerous adherents. The hunters of souls do not unfold the loving yet pure commandments of the Lord, and the requirements of the regenerate life, encouraging men to real virtue, and insisting upon doing right under all circumstances from the love of right; but they persuade, captivate, and ensnare men's minds, by flattering them in the pursuit of sensual objects and unworthy indulgences, tempering religion to the tastes of those they hope * In fact, all ancient nations were embodied religions, their kings being the chief priests. to gain, with a secret aim to the promotion of their own exaltation. Of such hunters of souls the prophet Ezekiel speaks :-" "Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing." “Will ye HUNT THE SOULS of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come to you? And will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley, and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies? Wherefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold I am against your pillows" (or soft flattering persuasions), "wherewith ye there HUNT THE SOULS to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even THE SOULS THAT YE HUNT to make them fly." cause with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life " (xiii. 3, 18, 19, 20, 22). "Be Out of such hunting, then, in hoary antiquity Babel rose, and out of Babel came at length Assyria. But how small the beginning of the power of the Assyrians was at first, and how vast it became in the course of ages, we can only briefly tell. Nineveh was founded in a region eminently suited to be the seat of a mighty empire. Where the river Zab falls into the great and rapid river Tigris, there are the ruins which mark the spot where the great city stood for ages. Twenty miles long, and about twelve miles broad, as the mounds which cover the ruins indicate, was the enormous capital, the focus of the Assyrian power. There are now ample historical proofs that it had a king and strong government, more than two thousand years before the coming of Christ. So completely had Nineveh been ruined by its overthrow and destruction by fire, along with its last king, Sardanapalus, that up to a recent period nothing but shapeless mounds remained. So vast were they, that they were believed both by the inhabitants of the region and by travellers for many ages to be hills of natural formation. But recently, by the sagacity, skill, determination, and perseverance of several learned men, and pre-eminently of our own countryman, Mr. Layard, these mounds have been explored, and found to contain remains of sculptures, painted walls, and other objects, so numerous and so varied, as to lay open once more the whole life of the nation. The appearance of the ancient Assyrians, their dress, their modes of life, their religion, their palaces, are all |