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HERE is something strikingly serious and impressive in the narrative respecting the barren fig-tree; and he who seeks truth for its own sake, cannot fail to draw from it such an instructive lesson as will both bless him in this world and do him good in his latter end. The Lord Jesus, returning in the morning from Bethany to Jerusalem, saw a fig-tree, or rather, as the Greek Scripture hath it, one fig-tree in the way; and finding nothing thereon, but leaves only, said unto it, "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig-tree withered away." The disciples, upon seeing this, marvelled greatly; and to shew how deeply their minds had been impressed by the phenomenon, they exclaimed, "How soon is the fig-tree withered away!"

The Lord instructed the people in heavenly things by parables; for without a parable spake he not unto them. (Matt. xii.xiii. [sic] 34.) "Behold," saith the Lord, "the fig-tree and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." (Luke xxi. 29-31.) Here the shooting forth of the fig-tree indicates the approach of summer, and the consequent ingathering or harvest; so when these appearances are put forth in nature,