Welsh Journals

HI s^ No. 16. MAY. 1866. Price 2d. #ur ^orir <wtr % §arren Jfig-tree. UR Saviour and bis disciples were on their way from Bethany to Jerusalem on the morning of the fourth day, the Monday before his crucifixion. He became hungry ; and "seeing a fig-tree afar off, having leaves, he came, if he might find anything thereon ; and when he came to it, he found nothing there¬ on . Jesus answered and said unto it, no man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever." And by the morrow, the disciples, who had heard those words, found to their astonishment that the barren tree was become & withered one. I. From a distance the tree had a prepossessing and, an inviting appearance. Its leaves were large and green, and its branches wide spreading; and its appearance -would be doubly cheering and inviting: to a Weary hungry traveller. But that barren fig-tree was the type of individuals, communities, places, nations. What an imposing appearance many an individual presents from a distance! their position in society is respectable, they inhabit handsome dwellings, have obtained a good reputation in business, grace their conversations with good sense and good manners, and abound in their charities. What a magnificent aspect communities, too, wear from a distance; the Roman and Greek churches, for example, with their thousands upon thousands of consecrated places for Divine worship, and their teeming myriads of great and small over many. countries of adherents. Nations also furnish us with a similar phenomenon ; for instance the Jews, especially as they were situ¬ ated in the days of our Lord. They were a peculiar people, a privileged race, highly exalted above all the nations of the earth. They had a glorious history, an ever-memorable past, splendid antecedents, eminent ancestors, a country with its every spot full of I.