THE TREE OF LIFE. With grim delight the brood of winter view, WHEN Adam and Eve were first placed in the garden of Eden, we are told that this garden contained a suitable description of food for the human family, and that it was fruit: "And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food: the Tree of Life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. * Let us inquire what species of fruit, such as the earth now produces, each of those two remarkable trees was likely to have borne. In the following chapter we find the fruit of the "Tree of Knowledge," described as being pleasant to the eyes; its fruit was of a beautiful colour, and probably of a large size; therefore it might have been a peach tree, an orange tree, or a pomegranate, as the fruit of each of those trees is large and beautiful, and, the two latter particularly, require a warm climate to bring them to perfection in the open air; but because the fruit looked attractive, it required a greater degree of selfdenial to refrain from trying its flavour; and this, added to the circumstance of their being told not to touch it, must have given a powerful stimulus to their curiosity. How often do we find children, who are inexperienced human beings, more anxious to enjoy those pleasures which are denied to them, than those which are within * Genesis, xi. 9. their reach; and now, after the experience of so many thousand years, do we not see daily examples of fullgrown men shortening their lives, for want of self-denial, and self-control? There is no particular description given of the Tree of Life; but as there was no specific command given to Adam not to eat it, he might have done so with impunity. It does not appear, however, to have attracted his attention, and had not been touched by him at the time he was driven out of the garden for the following reasons: "Lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword to keep the way of the Tree of Life. We may judge from this, that the Tree of Life was not so attractive in its appearance as the Tree of Knowledge, and also that it must have possessed properties favorable to the health and longevity of the human race. We may also conclude, that human life was shortened, by Adam not knowing how to select his food judiciously, and by his being deprived of the fruit of the Tree of Life. This tree is only mentioned again three times in the Holy Scriptures. In the 3rd chapter of the Proverbs, King Solomon compares wisdom to it; and in the book of Revelation, it is promised, first as a reward to those who should overcome the temptations of the world; and afterwards it is described as growing in the Holy City: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the paradise of God. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the Tree of Life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. " * Let us now inquire whether there is not a possibility that the Tree of Life is the grape vine: the fruit which it bears is much hidden by the leaves, and is neither so beautiful nor so attractive in its appearance as the orange or the pomegranate, although it requires the same description of climate which they do, to bring it to perfection in the open air. We do not find the vine mentioned by the sacred writers until after the flood, when the climate of the world underwent a change, which probably rendered it not so favourable to health and longevity, as it was before the deluge. The first time we hear this valuable tree noticed in the Bible is in the 9th chapter of Genesis, when Noah is described as planting a vineyard, drinking wine, and becoming intoxicated; probably from inexperience of the effects of a new species of beverage; as the chief crime the antediluvians were guilty of was fighting, "and the earth was filled with violence." They probably knew as little about the pleasures of intoxication, as the savages of North America and New Holland did, before the enlightened Europeans taught them how to put an enemy into their mouth, to steal away their brains. The vine is not again mentioned in Scripture until Joseph is asked when in Egypt, to interpret the dream of Pharoah's chief butler. From this we may learn that the vine flourished in Egypt, at that time, but we may suppose that Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, did not cultivate it in Canaan, as they led a pastoral life, and, consequently lived on mutton, grain, and animals killed in the chase. A failure in their * Rev. xi. 7. xxii. 2 † Genesis, vi. 11-13. Genesis, xl. 9, 10, 11. crops of corn obliged Jacob and his family to go to the land of Egypt, where they and their descendants resided for 400 years, and consequently acquired a taste for eating grapes and drinking wine. When the idolaters who had in the meantime taken possession of their land, had cultivated it, and built cities and towns, on the plains where Abram fed sheep; the descendants of Abram were called out of Egypt to take possession of it again; and it was then described as a land of "vineyards and olive trees," which they had not planted but of which they were to enjoy the fruit. When Moses sent spies to find out what the land produced, "they cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates and the figs." + In the 80th Psalm, the Jewish Church is beautifully compared to a vine. "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the rivers. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts, look down from heaven and behold and visit this vine." How greatly did our Saviour honour this tree, when he said to his disciples, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the * Deut. vi. 11, viii. 8. + Numbers. xiii. 23. vine; no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing." When he instituted the Sacrament of the Lord's supper, and appointed wine to be used in commemoration of his death, we are told by three of the Evangelists that he concluded with these memorable words: "But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." * We learn from this, that The Spiritual Temple, can only be built in a country which will produce the vine in the open air. France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Turkey, and Greece, all produce the vine, but as they are stained with the blood of martyrs, whose blood is to be avenged, when He comes to judge the world, and reign with the saints on earth, in his Father's Kingdom; they must have some more distant part of the world to cultivate it in. There are at present one thousand acres of land in Australia, under flourishing vineyards, and in the words in which Moses described the holy land, it is, "A land of wheat and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; à land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass." t In reflecting on this text we may judge that a land which will produce all kinds of grain and fruit, is one where the Lord's people may live contentedly; and that if it also produces the useful metals, such as copper and Matthew, xxvi. 29, Mark, xiv. 23. Luke, xxii. 18. * Deut. viii. 8. G |