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 interior state develops itself. Taking the sycamore tree as an emblem of that interior form of truth, or of those views of truth which the natural man receives, and from which the charitable publican was called to a more intimate acquaintance with his Saviour (Luke xix. 2, 6), it will represent the same external views, when confirmed and set up in opposition to more spiritual perceptions. In which case, what was useful in its proper place, as apparent truth, becomes an obstacle to the reception of genuine truth. This is a matter of common experience. That the sun rises and sets; that "God is angry with the wicked," are truths to the natural man who is led by appearances. But if he insist that those appearances are real facts, he makes them no longer truth, but error. That the apostles entertained such external views, and were "slow of heart to believe" the wondrous things their divine Master afterwards expounded, is plain from the gospel history; and if he pointed to this impediment to their faith under the figure of the thick-shading sycamore, the harmony of the application with both the spiritual and natural character of the tree is equally instructive.

The firm-branching mountain cedar, figures a higher degree or condition than the light-wooded sycamore of the vale. Hence, in the golden days of Solomon, "The king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones; and cedars made he to be as the sycamore trees that are in the vale, for abundance." (1 Kings x. 27.) And in the true church of the Lord, though natural good and truth will always serve as a basis on which the church may rest; spiritual good and truth will attain their glorious elevation, and the golden age gladden again the souls of the regenerate.