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The vines required considerable care and attention, or they would not produce good fruit. To this our Lord refers, John xv, 2, where he so beautifully compares himself to a vine, and his people to the branches. The vines would

not bring forth good fruit unless they were pruned, and the useless branches cut away. Thus we shall not bring forth good fruit, (that is, do what is right,) unless our evil habits and sinful inclinations are taken away. The vine cannot prune itself, so we cannot make ourselves good; but the Lord, in mercy, does this for his people. Though what he finds needful for them sometimes is very painful, yet it is for their good; and by the power of Christ, who is the root, (see John xv,) they are enabled to do what is right and pleasing in the sight of God. The press in which the grapes are squeezed, is often mentioned when the manner in which the Lord will punish sinners by his almighty power, which none can withstand, is described: see Isa. lxiii, 3.

There were several sorts of fruits common in Judea besides grapes among them were dates, 2 Chron. xxxi, 5, marginal reading. Also pomegranates, (Deut. viii, 8; 1 Sam. xiv, 2; Cant. viii, 2,) which are very pleasant fruit; figs, mentioned Jer. xxiv, 2, and in many texts; cucumbers and melons,—these the Israelites had eaten in Egypt, (Num. xi, 5,) and found them in the promised land. Melons and cucumbers are much cultivated in Eastern countries. Jowett mentions that they abound in Egypt at the present day. He says, "They grow in such abundance on the river side, that the sailors of the Nile freely helped themselves; and here and there was a small hut made of reeds, just large enough to shelter a man to protect the fruit; as is mentioned Isa, i, 8, 'a lodge in a garden of cucumbers.'" Sometimes, when there was a scarcity, the Israelites ate the gourds which grew wild in the fields, as 2 Kings iv, 39. Our Lord cursed the barren fig-tree, Mark xi, 13. There is a sort of fig-tree in the East, called the sycamorefig, which bears fruit several times in the year, and not at any certain season. The words of our Lord declared that, as the tree was then barren, it should wither away. As it stood by the way-side, it does not appear to have been the particular property of any one; in the sentence passed upon it, it has been considered a striking type of the condition of the unbelieving Jews.

One of the principal fruits cultivated by the Jews was the olive. It was particularly valuable on account of the oil it yielded when ripe, Zech. iv, 12; when cultivated with care, the fruit is much finer than on wild trees. This is beautifully alluded to in Rom. xi, 17-24, where St. Paul reminds the Gentiles of the inestimable benefits they receive from being admitted into the Church of Christ. It appears from ancient books on husbandry, that the method there described, of grafting the shoots of the wild olive upon the cultivated stock, was the plan pursued.

The olives were cultivated in gardens, separately; this explains what was said by Elisha, 2 Kings v, 26. Nehemiah complained of the wealthy Jews, who withheld the olive-yards belonging to their poorer brethren, Neh. v, 11; also 1 Sam. viii, 14. But olive-gardens are particularly to be remembered, as our Lord often went to one of them, and prayed with his disciples. It was in that place he suffered the anguish of mind for poor sinners, recorded by the evangelists, particularly in St. Luke's Gospel, ch. xxii, 39–46. Let us ever remember that our Lord not only suffered a painful death upon the cross, but he also endured much while praying in the garden. He then suffered in his mind the punishment which our sins justly deserved, which was so painful, although he himself had not sinned, that "being agony, he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground," Luke xxii, 44.

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Dr. Clarke gives a particular account of the Mount of Olives. He describes the beautiful and extensive view from that mountain, where our Lord sat (Mark xiii, 3) and prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem. He also recollected the account of David's passing over it when fleeing from Absalom, (2 Sam. xv, 32,) and other particulars: he "visited an olive-ground always mentioned as the garden of Gethsemane. This place is, not without probability, shown as the scene of our Saviour's agony the night before his crucifixion." He there found a grove of aged olive-trees, of large size, covered with fruit; although these cannot be the same trees that grew there nearly two thousand years ago, yet they have, no doubt, been produced from the original trees. It is " a curious and interesting fact, that we have clear evi

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dence that olive-trees have grown on this spot since the time of David, three thousand years ago."

More recent travelers describe this plot of ground as containing eight of these very ancient trees: it is not possible to say that it certainly is the spot mentioned by the evangelists; doubtless the trees there were cut down, as well as all the other trees round Jerusalem, during the siege by the Romans; but the locality agrees with the description in the New Testament far better than those shown for other places described.

Before ending what is said respecting the agriculture of the Jews, the reader may be reminded of the many allusions to these subjects in the Scriptures. And as the methods of cultivating the ground are still so like what they were nearly two thousand years ago, these allusions explain to us many texts. "Ye are God's husbandry," or cultivated field. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." "I am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. "I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Husbandman.' It is needless to copy more.

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MANUFACTURES-TRADES-COMMERCE-MONEY-SHIPS.

MANUFACTURES AND TRADES.

THERE is very little in the Bible about the trades and manufactures among the Jews. But they had smiths, Isa. xliv, 12; liv, 16; and carpenters, Isa. xli, 7; xliv, 13; Zech. i, 20; and other trades necessary in a country where the inhabitants chiefly lived by tilling the soil. The enemies who invaded the land, as the Philistines (1 Sam. xiii, 19) and the Babylonians, (Jer. xxiv, 1,) carried the craftsmen away captives. They did so, both to distress the Israelites, and because men skilled in handicraft trades were reckoned the most valuable captives or slaves; they are so at the present day. It is plain that there must be craftsmen of this description in every land which is at all civilized. "The valley of craftsmen," (1 Chron. iv, 14,) shows that they lived together. Joseph, the reputed father of our Lord after the flesh, was a carpenter, Matt. xiii, 55; Mark vi, 3. From the texts, Luke ii, 51; Mark vi, 3, some persons suppose that Christ himself assisted Joseph while subject unto him and his mother, Mary, before he went forth to do the will of his heavenly Father, and therefore he was called "the carpenter." Whether this be correct or not, the circum

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stance of our Lord being willing to be considered "a carpenter," may well make those engaged in trades of handicraft content with their lot. In whatever state we are placed, let us be therewith content, Phil. iv, 11.

There were not many regular manufactures among the Jews. In 1 Chron. iv, 21, we read of the families of the house of them that wrought fine linen, an instance of the sort as a trade. In verse 23, we read of potters, and also in Jer. xviii, 2, and Lam. iv, 2: the potters in the East often work with a wheel upon the same principle as with us. In those times, probably, the children were usually brought up to their father's business. This rule is strictly followed in the East Indies at the present day: scarcely any one is allowed to pursue a trade different from that of his family.

There are several beautiful allusions to weaving, Job vii, 6; Isa. xxxviii, 12; but this, like spinning the thread, was a family employment, rather than a regular trade. It is so now among some Eastern nations. The loom and instruments for spinning were of the plainest and most simple kinds. In the description of the virtuous woman, (Prov. xxxi, 10-31,) is a minute account of the manner in which

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