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of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, and the people did fear before the Lord. Then spake Haggai, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came, and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God." * Oh! that Haggai were to rise from the dead now, and stir up the " spirits" of Queen Victoria and her ministers, and the "spirits" of the Evangelical Archbishops, Bishops, and Clergy of the Church of England. Oh! that they would send out living stones in "hearts of oak," to "subdue the earth," and erect the Spiritual Temple in Australia. How might the words of the prophet in a few years be applied to this beautiful country! "The glory of this latter house, shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts; and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts." In all the promises relating to New Jerusalem, the vine is spoken of as one of the great blessings the Lord's people are to expect as their reward when assembled in it. In fact it is the most valuable of all trees to the human race, for independent of its producing wine and brandy, spirits of wine is a most important article to chemists to enable them to extract the virtues of other plants; and grapes in the season when they are ripe, are found efficacious in restoring the health

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of invalids. Dr. Jouest a French physician says, that there is nothing in medicine, that can so completely change the blood, as grapes; and that no complaint of the stomach can resist the adoption of the following regimen.

When the grapes are ripe, the patient should begin by eating a pound and a half the first day, divided into six parts, one part to be taken on awakening in the morning, two parts at ten o'clock, two parts at two o'clock, and one part at five. The quantity should be increased each day, until on the eighth day it amounts to five pounds. That quantity should be continued for four or five days; the patient should then take a dose of Gregory's powder, and on that day no grapes.

The next day the diet should be recommenced at three pounds per day, and continued for six weeks, without any more medicine. The patient should take a walk between each dose of grapes, not too long to cause fatigue, but to be in the open air as much as possible; and should be up and dressed at seven in the morning, and not sit up late at night. The other articles of diet should be a basin of good beef tea, free from fat, for breakfast at 8 o'clock; an hour after taking the grapes. At one o'clock a dinner of mutton chop or chicken. At seven a bowl of beef soup, with vermicelli or barley in it; and at all the meals as much bread as may be agreeable. Tea, coffee, wine, and beer, should be avoided while trying this regimen.

I shall select a few texts from Jeremiah to prove that the inhabitants of New Jerusalem are to come from North to South; that the vine is to be very plentiful; that spiritual as well as temporal blessings are to be enjoyed. This prophecy could not be fulfilled until the Geography of the earth was completed; and the gospel

preached over the whole extent of the habitable globe. The Prophet also leads us to expect that some professing Christian ministers would be influenced by a tyrannical spirit. "Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people. Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds and they shall be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them ; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord. Behold the days come saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is the name whereby he shall be called THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord that they shall no more say, the Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but the Lord liveth which brought up, and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land." * We may judge from this chapter that the land the Lord's people are to occupy when the promise is fulfilled, is land which is to be either purchased by them or given to them for ever: not land let to them on leases, as in Great Britain, subject to the caprice of tyrannical landlords, but land which, when once possessed they can feel

* Jeremiah, xxiii. 1—8.

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they are kings over. Victor Considérant concluded a series of lectures which he delivered on Social Destiny at Dijon, in February 1844, with the following words: Gentlemen, all the sacred books agree in proclaiming that man is the king of the creation. Such is his destiny. But I ask you does man merit in the present day to bear this glorious title? Who is this king covered with rags, devoured by hunger and sickness, who comes to display his sores and his misery in the public streets? I do not here recognize the king of the creation! The prophecies are not accomplished. Let all nations form societies, let all people agree and organize themselves into the unity of the great family; let man employ his hands and his intelligence in the general cultivation of the globe instead of devastating it; let him take complete possession of his domain, and let him apply to the happiness of all the wealth produced, then he may call himself king of the creation! But in the present day, the condition of inferior animals is often better than his." In several of Victor Considérant's valuable works, he gives plans for the formation of societies for universal association: but it appears impossible to begin any new system in a country like France, which is suffering from centuries of misrule; therefore the prophecies cannot be fulfilled until the movement from north to south begins, which Jeremiah again alludes to in the following words, and leads us to expect that it will be continued for some time by people from northern latitudes moving to the south. "Behold I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together, a great company shall return thither. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains

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of Samaria: the planters shall plant and shall eat them as common things."

This can only be the case when the vine can be cultivated without glass, where land is cheap, and where industrious people will find health and longevity promoted, by agricultural and horticultural pursuits; where every man can have his own vine and his own fig-tree.

In the last chapter of the Revelation, where the tree of life is represented as bearing "twelve manner of fruits," may it not be a method given us to identify the vine as described by Sir Thomas Mitchell? And although it produces fruit but at one season of the year, wine may be drank, and raisins may be eaten all through the year, which is nearly as good as if it really did, "yield fruit every month." Let us inquire the meaning of the following portion of this remarkable text. "And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

The leaf

of a tree is all the shelter that the fruit requires to bring it to perfection, if it is cultivated in a suitable climate. Therefore the cultivation of the vine in a country like England, is unnatural, because it requires the shelter of green-houses, and hot-houses. Now, glass is a manufacture which is so injurious to the health of those engaged in making it, that glass blowers are generally sickly and shortlived. But although England has the name of being a free country, and Englishmen of all ranks sing with enthusiasm—

Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves,

Britons never will be slaves!

the working classes in England, and indeed all over Europe, are in as great a state of slavery, as the children of Israel were in the land of Egypt, at the time when

* Jeremiah, xxxi. 8, 5.

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