THE TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

And a poor man's family

Shall not be his misery,

In the good time coming.

WHEN Our Saviour was on earth, St. Luke informs us that he was in the habit of teaching in the synagogues, and on one occasion that, He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverence to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down; and the eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in * He then made a few remarks, which so your ears. offended the pride of his hearers, that, All they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he, passing through the midst of them, went his continuation of the chapter of Isaiah,

way. †

The

from where

* Luke iv. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. † 28, 29, 30.

our Saviour left off reading, is as follows: And the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.* From this prophecy we may learn, that as ornamental trees are taken young out of forests, when they are intended to beautify parks or domains, so "the kingdom of God," is to be inhabited by those descendants of Adam who are "ready to forsake all, and follow their Redeemer; to leave the forest of the Old World, in order that they may, "do the will of God on earth as it is done in Heaven." In the first Psalm we find David comparing a good man to a tree: "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful: but his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."+

Whichever of my readers has had the privilege of walking through the park of an English nobleman, which has been laid out with taste by a skilful landscape gardener, must have admired how much the variety of different species of trees, with which they are usually adorned, by being judiciously planted, and contrasted with each other, has caused them individually and collectively to contribute to the beauty of the whole, although each had the power of expanding its branches,

* Isaiah lxi. 2, 3. † Psalms i. 1, 2, 3.

and unfolding its leaves, without interfering with another; while at the same time they were affording each other mutual protection and shelter. In this manner might families, who really loved their Lord, and were anxious to do his will, and to "love one another," associate together, and form societies for mutual protection and assistance, contributing individually to the collective moral beauty of the whole; and exercising their one or ten entrusted talents to promote the glory of God, and the good of their fellowbeings.

The tree David has selected, for an emblem of a good man, is a fruit tree. Let us now enquire, what is the use of leaves to a fruit tree? They protect the fruit, until it is fully ripe, from the scorching heat, or the chilling blast; and we all know that if the leaves, of even a gooseberry bush, happen to be devoured, as they sometimes are, by a destructive insect, the fruit never arrives at perfection.

In applying this emblem to the human race, let us inquire whether the state of the higher class of society in England is favourable to the growth of "Trees of Righteousness. King David thus speaks of them when young: "Lo children are an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are the children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.” * A good man may have a large family of children, who cannot be expected to arrive at perfection, until they have each numbered twenty-one years. During that period they require the fostering care of both their parents, the protection of a dwelling-house, and opportunities of ex

* Psalm cxxvii. 3, 4, 5.

ercising and developing the physical strength of their body and limbs, which must be nourished by wholesome food; they also need a certain quantity of assistance in the cultivation of their intellectual faculties, and examples of morality and virtue in those with whom they associate; accompained by instruction how they are to seek for true wisdom at the throne of grace, and in "the fountain of truth." A child who grows to maturity, without the protecting influence of those, his natural leaves, can no more be expected to have arrived at the degree of perfection, which the Almighty intended, when he endowed him at his birth, with a healthfully constituted body, and a brain which had no indications of idiotcy, than the gooseberry, whose leaves have been devoured by a caterpillar.

The fruit of a man is also frequently used in the sacred writings to express his good or bad actions. St. Paul in writing to the church at Galatia after enumerating a series of sins and crimes, which he calls, "works of the flesh," thus continues, "of the which I tell you, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."* As a tree cannot be expected to produce fruit, until it has arrived at a certain age, so a man's actions cannot be judged of, until he is old enough to act independently: in fact, until he is a full grown man. "old heads cannot be expected on young shoulders," therefore, for the first twenty-one years of a man's life, he requires a degree of controul and guidance to keep him in the right path, which he ought not to require after that period to in

* Galatians v. 21, 22, 23.

fluence his actions. If his moral sentiments, reasoning faculties, and veneration have been well developed, in the course of his training or education, he ought to be a good man at the age of twenty-one; and ought not to require the laws of any earthly government to influence him. If placed in any position of strong temptation, he ought to be a law unto himself, and whatever way he may wish to occupy his hands or his head, he ought not to take a pleasure in doing any thing that would interfere with the commandment, "love thy neighbour as thyself."

The

But of course the fruit, in this case also, cannot be expected to be good, if deprived of its natural leaves. We would think that a gardener tried a very ridiculous experiment if he were to strip a vine of all its beautiful foliage, and to tie over its stem, a parcel of cabbage leaves. Yet, how frequently do parents in the old world resemble such a gardener. Let us suppose a case. Earl and Countess of Lovesport have four children, (one at a time of course.) The Countess does not like any occupation which would interfere with her attending the opera regularly, as she is devotedly fond of music; and she never likes to refuse an invitation to a ball, as she is passionately fond of dancing. She has also a very large circle of acquaintance, who expect her to make morning calls frequently, and she likes to take a ride in the park occasionally. So as she has plenty of money, she hires nurses successively for her four infants, as soon as they are born. She still continues to enjoy "the pomps and vanities of the wicked world," as her children are growing older, and she has a great dislike to the noise of children; but as her town house and country house are both large, she has appropriated a spacious nursery and school-room in each, for "training up her