WlNK-FAT.
Approaching Hebron, Dr. Bonar describes the square towers in gardens, corresponding to those mentioned in lsa. V, 2 ; Matt, xxi, 33, and aiids, " These towers seem of considerable size, as if meant for something more than watching; and we are told that in summer the inhabi- tants of the city take up their residence in their gar- dens, and make use of these t()wers for shelter by night, as they do of their olives and vines for shade by day" {Land of Promise, p. Gl). Even in spring, and long be- fore a single " berry" was ripe, with their fresli and deli- cate fragrance, and with their promise of "things not seen as yet," there was a great attraction in the vine- yards; and though it were only to see if the "vine flourished and the tender grape appeared," it was worth while to arise early and " go forth to the field and lodge in the villages" (Cant, ii, 11-13 ; vii, 11,12). Nor must we forget the feathered minstrelsy wdiich at that season made the vineyards vocal. They are the hiding-place of the bulbul, the nightingale of Palestine; and in vine- yards under Hermon, Tristram, in the course of two days, discovered a finch and two warblers, all of them perfectly new to ornithology, and all of them " songsters of no ordinary power and comjiass" {Tniveh, p. GOG).
Even the leaves and the stocks of the vine are use- ful. The cuttings of the vine and the leaves are much used for manure to the vineyards. The leaves are also used as a vegetable, chopijcd meat and rice being rolled
Egyptian Vineyard and Wiue-press. (From the mouumeuls at Kuruah, Thebes.)
VINE
794
VINE OF SODOM
lip totrpthcr in single leaves, and boiled for the table ; it inakos a very ayreeable di.-^b. The leaves are also used for fodder. The scarcity of fuel, particidarly wood, ill most ]iarts of the East is so great tliat they siipi)ly it with everything capable of burniiii;- — eow-dinig-, dried roots, pariiiirs of fruits, withered stalks of herbs, and flowers. Vine-twitrs are particidarly mentioned as used f..r fuel ill dressino- tlieir food by D'Arvieux. La Hoque, and others. Ezekiel says, in his parable of the vine used lisuratively for the people of (Jod. '• Shall wood be taken tliereof to do any work? or shall men take a pin (if it to hanLC any vessel thereon? BehoUl, it is cast into the fire for fuel" (xv, 3, 4). "If a man abide not iu me," saiili our Lord, " he is cast forth as a branch (of the vine), and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned" (John XV. G). See l'"it:i..
III. Everywhere present, so beautiful, so valuable, we cannot wonder that the vine reappears on almost every page of poetic Scrijiture; and, ahnost as if created on purpose, it has become the symbol of the believer and of the Cliuich. "My beloved hath a vineyard on a very fruitful hill." Thus Israel is a vine brought from Egypt, and planted by the Lord's hand in the land of jiromise; room had been prejiared for it (comp. with this the passage from Belon (pioted above V, ami where it took root it filled the land, it covered the hills wilh its shadow, its boughs wore like the goodly cedar-trees (Psa. Ixxx, 8-10). Comp. Gmelin (Trarek tfiroiir/h Niis- sia and North. Persia, iii,43I), who thus speaks of the vines of (ihilan : " It is fond of forests. . . . and is fre- quently found about promontories; and their lower part is almost entirely covered with it. There, higher than the eyecaiireacli.it winds itself about the loftiest trees; and its tendrils, which here have an arm's thickness, so spread and mutually entangle themselves far and wide that in places where it grows in the most luxuriant wildness it is very difticult to find a passage."' To dwell under the vine and tig-tree is an emblem of domestic liappiness and peace (1 Kings iv, 2o; Psa. cxxviii, 3; ]Mic. iv, 4) ; the rebellious people of Israel are compared to "wild grapes," "an empty vine," "the degenerate plant of a strange vine" (Isa. v, 2, 4 [but see Cociii.E] ; Jer. ii, 21 ; Hos. x, 1), etc. It is a vine which our Lord selects to show tlie spiritual union which subsists be- tween himself and his members (John xv, 1-6). With a stock or stem and its outgoing branches, a wonderful hydraulic apparatus, made for the rapid transmission and rich elaboration of the liipiid treasures hidden in the soil; with feeble and flexible twigs which, in order to grow upward, must clasp the elm or cling to the wall; with its avidity for the sunshine and the shower; with its large soft leaves, and the tender scent of its meek inconspicuous blossom; above all, with its atnethystine ri[)eness empurpling autumn's diadem and inviting the world to gladness, it is an adniiralile emblem of the Christian and tlie Church — of the believing soul and the believing society. "My soul cleavetli to the dust," and it is only by clasping and cliniiiiiig that the fallen nature rises; and, like the vine with its curling tendrils, so with the feeble fingers of his faith tiie Christian takes hold and mounts upward. Of the Kock of Ages, of the Pil- lar and (iround of the Truth, of the Tree of Life, he takes hold : and from the dust, and from amid the cree|)ing things, is drawn up info the pure air and the sunshine. Ami just as he reposes on a sure sn]iport — a Saviour as faithful as he is mighty — so he has a strong .afhnity for those truths and that communion which keep up the spirit's life. 'J'he vine subsists by drink- ir.g. It is because he is himself suih a thirsty plant that his clusters are so refreshing. Through every eager channel absorbing the fulness of the neighboring well, he hangs aloft his Hasks of nectar — his jiensile fountain tilleil with the essence of all the summer, yet cooled again by the broad leaves amid which it nes- tles. So the believer has not only an aspiring tenden- cy, but a thirsty tcniperauicnt. Longing for that which