the globe. So that in them is the text fully verified. We have seen what was done in the green tree ; and we now see what has been done, and is even yet doing, in the dry.]
But, in these words we may yet further see, II. A solemn warning to all mankind —
All are fitly compared to " a dry tree" —
[A tree which is dead draws no moisture from the ground ; nor does it derive any benefit from the sun and rain. The heavenly influences which nourish and strengthen living trees, serve but to prepare the dead trees as fuel for the fire. What a striking picture does this give us of the Christian world ! All who call themselves Christians are planted on the same ground. But the great mass of them are dead. Though, by profession, standing on Christ, and rooted in him, they receive from him no communications of grace or peace. The ordinances which enrich others, impart no blessing to these; but rather tend to render them more dead, and more meet for the fire that shall consume them. Years pass away, and no change, but for the worse, is wrought upon them : so that the very attempt to make them fruitful is altogether in vain.]
And what can be prepared for them ?
[What but excision and the fire ? They shall not always be left to cumber the ground thus. Look at every individual tree, and you shall see an axe already lying at the root, ready to inflict the fatal stroke, the moment that the expected order for it shall be issued. But, O who can conceive the fierceness of that fire which shall then consume it ; or, rather, that shall ever prey upon it unconsumed ; the fire itself being never quenched, nor the material that feeds it being ever wasted? In the green tree, the calamities were soon at an end : but to the dry tree, eternity itself shall be the duration of its torments. The things indeed which were done in Christ were inconceivably terrible, notwithstanding his perfect innocence : but, if they were so terrible in him, when sin was only imputed to him, what shall they be in those who are laden with iniquities, from their youth up even to their dying hour ? Verily, no tongue can utter, no imagination can conceive, the miseries that await those who, in the midst of all the advantages of Gospel ministrations, con- tinue dead in trespasses and sins.]
Sufficient has been spoken for the explaining of the text, both in its prophetic import and its more general application. We may now give some- what fuller scope to our observations, whilst we
Call YOU to NOTICE,