November Twenty-seventh.
THE OLIVE, THE VINE, AND THE FIG.
"The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us. But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou and reign over us. But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou and reign over us. And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou and reign over us, and the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow! and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon."—Judges ix. 8-15.
THIS is one of the most beautiful and instructive parables in the whole of the Divine Word, equally edifying in the letter as in the spirit. Dr. Hales has, with great force and beauty, illustrated the literal sense, which we shall first transcribe, and then proceed to illustrate the spiritual sense.
"For their ingratitude to the house of Gideon, the Shechemites were indignantly upbraided by Jotham, in the oldest and most beautiful apologue of antiquity extant—the trees choosing a king. With the mild and unassuming dispositions of his pious and honourable brethren—declining, like their father, we may suppose, the crown, when offered to them successively, under the imagery of the olive tree, the fig tree and the vine—he pointedly contrasts the upstart ambition and arrogance of the wicked and turbulent Abimelech, represented by the bramble, inviting his new and nobler subjects, the cedars of Lebanon, to put their trust in his pigmy shadow, which they did not want, and which he was unable to afford them; but threatening them
