of figs with them was not—they were in no state of producing good, either spiritual, moral, or worldly.
The Lord, being hungry, came to the tree for fruit. His hunger is the Divine desire that men should receive, and be thus fed with, the blessings of heaven; and God, in Scripture, is said to be fed when man receives of his fulness, and is filled and blessed. Jesus will say to all men who are fruitless trees, "I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat." (Matt. xxv. 42.) Think, then, O reader, that the Lord will come to inspect the interiors of thy life! He will come for fruit, not for leaves! Think of this, and remember that nothing remains for the barren fig-tree but to wither away.
February Fourteenth.
NADAB AND ABIHU.
"And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not."—Lev. x. 1.
WHEN Nadab and Abihu, the two erring sons of Aaron, offered, contrary to Divine command, their strange fire to Jehovah, it is said that there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. As all holy scripture is given by inspiration of God, or is God-breathed, so it is "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Tim. iii. 16. 17.) Here, indeed, the teaching of the apostle is pre-eminently beautiful, shewing that the Word of God is spirit and life. If
